What Could Have Been: The Rat and the Scorpion
by Queen of the Scorpions
Summary: Peter mysteriously disappears on winter holiday and returns a changed man. It seems he can't catch a break, though. What happens when Shinobi, Wizards, and evil Shapeshifters clash? Snape and the marauders team up, that's what. Peter is a Shinobi. Rated T for some disturbing, demon related scenes. FINNISHED! (For real this time)
1. 1: The Girl with the Crystal Ball

**Chapter One**

 **The girl with the crystal ball**

 **Peter's point of view**

 **Peter awoke early in the morning, so early that the sun wasn't even up yet. He got out of bed, stretching. He looked in the mirror and smiled. Most people wouldn't smile when they saw this as their reflection. He had a skinny, pointed face, that was about the opposite of the rest of his body, as he was overweight, and watery blue, beady eyes. His nose was small and rat-like, and his hair was a blotchy mix of dusty brown and almost yellow blonde. He didn't really care, however, he had brought this appearance on himself by choosing a rat as his animagus form. He ran his fingers through his thin, untidy hair and shook his head. Peter looked at his clock, it was four thirty exactly. He was always the first one up, but rarely this early. He was only the first one awake, simply because his dreams brought him no comfort. He only ever dreamt of leaving his abusive home for Hogwarts to be with his only friends, the ever admired, brilliant rebels that James and Sirius were, and the genius prefect and, most likely, future head boy, Remus. He looked around the room at his sleeping friends, smiling to himself.**

 **He knew Remus would wake up next, at exactly six, eager to learn and sticking to a self-imposed, strict schedule. Then, it would be Sirius, at around six thirty, who would automatically start working on his hair, which was just fine as it was, and then James, never at the same time, who would've slept in clean robes so he didn't have to change in the morning, and waking simply because he had to, or because he wanted to hop on a broom and play quidditch with Sirius or because he was hungry. Peter changed his clothes and sat on his bed, staring out the window at the snow covered grounds. An ever present grin painted on his face. In reality he was almost always pretending to be cheerful, he often wondered wether it was the same thing for Remus, who had every reason to be glum, but almost never was. He was lost in thought, watching a deer jump over the fence to the pumpkin patch, and begin pawing hopefully at some decaying leaves. His smile turned into a real one, as his thoughts drifted over to the first time he had seen James and Sirius transform, he had been so mesmerized by it.**

 **It was now just after six fifteen. He knew Remus was up already. He picked up his wand and entertained himself for awhile by levitating his belongings and making them soar around the room. He did this for around five minutes, but got bored and let them fall to the ground again. He looked out the window onto the icy grounds again, and thought he saw something moving across the snow. He got up and crossed to the window. By the time he got there what had been moving over toward the castle had stopped right underneath the window. There were no foot prints anywhere what so ever. Peter looked a bit closer at the person standing beneath the window and fear began to slice at the insides of his chest.**

 **Remus's point of view**

 **His eyes snapped open. He looked at the clock by his bed, exactly six. He sat up, and smiled at the sight of Peter grinning to himself. He knew Peter had a hard time at home, he always came to school with bruises, cuts, and burns, but instead of whining about it or using it to seek attention, he focused his attention elsewhere, and could easily find the beauty in almost anything. Remus dressed, combed his hair and began to collect his books from various places in the room, where they had been scattered by Sirius and James the previous night. It had taken him awhile to find his books, it was almost six thirty. He looked up and opened his mouth to say good morning to Peter, but then he closed it again. Peter had crossed over to the window, his face was sheet white, and his small eyes were wide. He walked over, standing shoulder to shoulder with him. Standing in the knee-deep snow was a girl that looked around thirteen.**

 **Her skin was so pale it blended with the snow behind her. Her hair was long and black as the sky at midnight. She was wearing a black, torn up dress and a traveling cloak of the same color and state. She was staring at something that was clutched in her hands. She looked up, straight into the window they were staring out of. They could see her face now. Her eyes were lemon shaped, dark, empty holes and her mouth was also just a black hole, but it was stretched into a demonic grin. They could also now see what she had been staring at, a gleaming crystal ball that looked to be glowing the least bit red. A female child's laugh floated up to them, easily heard even through the closed window. It took Remus a second to realize that the girl was looking directly at them, and it took him even longer to retrieve his senses, which seemed to have been lost.**

 **The second he fully appreciated what was going on, fear coursed through his body. He looked at Peter, at the exact time Peter had looked over to him and both of them yelled loudly. Sirius and James jumped out of bed as Peter and Remus fell backward away from the window. James had actually fallen out of bed.**

 **"Next time you want me to get me up, just make Sirius sit on me again." James said, his voice slightly muffled by the carpet.**

 **"What is with you guys?" Sirius asked with a grin. "You look like you've seen a ghost." Remus and Peter began shouting out their explanations of what they had just seen in unison while James collected himself off the floor.**

 **James point of view**

 **Remus and Peter stood up. Both of them were white as winter.**

 **"What is with you guys, you look like you've seen a ghost." Sirius teased them. They both, simultaneously, shot into their own account of what they had seen. The only words James was able to pick out were; girl, eyes, black, and demon.**

 **"Woah, guys, hold your hippogriffs, one at a time please." James said holding up his hands. They fell silent. "Peter, what happened?"**

 **"I thought I saw something moving outside, so I went to the window to go look. There was this girl standing in the snow, but there weren't any footprints. Her skin was so pale I almost thought she was just a really good snow man and her hair went down to her feet. She was staring at like a crystal ball. Then Remus came over an the girl looked up at us." Peter began in a rushed alarmed fashion.**

 **"Her eyes were like huge holes." Remus said.**

 **"And so was her mouth." Peter added "And she was smiling, and it just looked so unnatural. "**

 **"And when she laughed we could hear it through the window, and it sounded like a little girl." Remus finished. James felt a fleeting stab of fear, but then he laughed and so did Sirius.**

 **"Good one, mates." Sirius said laughing.**

 **"You almost had me there, who came up with that?" James asked.**

 **"It's not a joke." Peter whimpered. "L-look out the window, and you'll see her." James laughed, shook his head, and looked out the window. For a second he thought he saw the girl that Peter and Remus had described, but he blinked and nothing was there. He shook his head again. You should've done this just before Halloween, you actually had me tricking myself out right there." Sirius gasped and the three of them looked at him. He was shaking slightly with a horrified look.**

 **"L-look, th-there she is." He whispered pointing at the opposite end of the room. James whipped around, fear coursing through his body once more. Peter and Remus had also spun around to face the opposing wall. There was nobody there. Sirius let out a joyful, barking laugh that split through the tensed silence that had materialized at his announcement.**

 **James joined in with the laughter.**

 **"Were you in on this, mate?" He asked.**

 **"No." Sirius chortled. "I just decided to jump on the band wagon." At this pronouncement, however, James suddenly felt worried. Why had they looked if they knew the girl didn't exist?**

 **"Why did you turn around if that wasn't part of the prank?" He asked, but even as he said this an idea sprung up.**

 **"Because it's true." Remus said. James laughed again, right along with Sirius.**

 **"No, no, I see it. Great acting, guys, got me going that time too." Said Sirius.**

 **"Brilliant." James agreed.**

 **Sirius's point of view**

 **Sirius checked his watch.**

 **"Hey," He began, still chuckling. "We should go down to breakfast soon, James and I have something to do." A different type of grin spread across James's face and Sirius knew the same was happening to his own. They had planned quite the extravagant prank, in which Peeves had already agreed to help. Remus and Peter looked at each-other exasperatedly.**

 **"How could you be planning a prank when there's a demon loose on Hogwarts grounds?" Remus asked.**

 **"Mates, really joke's over. We didn't fall for it, just let it go, try again with something else when we're not expecting it." Sirius said, disbelievingly.**

 **"But... but..." Peter squeaked.**

 **"Really, Peter you'd make a wicked actor, you look like you're about to pass out." James smirked. "C'mon guys, lets head down to breakfast." He cast a significant look at Sirius.**

 **"Step only where we step." Sirius said mischievously. He and James laughed as they walked toward the door. Sirius ran his fingers through his hair, feeling very self conscious, but knowing he didn't have time if they wanted to be eating breakfast when the prank was set off, which was important so they could establish an alibi. The smile was wiped off his face when he looked back over his shoulder and saw Peter and Remus still standing with their backs against the wall, mouths slightly open, pale, and wide-eyed.**

 **"Come off it, guys, lets go." He urged, but the only response he got was for them to blink and shake their heads.**

 **"If you really saw what you think you saw, it was somebody pranking you." James said reasonably. He was still walking toward the door but stopped mid-stride. "Oh, Merlin, I'm starting to sound like Remus."**

 **"That," Remus began slowly and darkly, "was no prank. No human could ever look like that. We aren't leaving this room, until you admit what we saw was true." His voice became stubborn.**

 **"You don't want to stay up here alone, do you?" James asked slyly as he and Sirius, who picked up the idea, made for the door.**

 **"No, thank you." Peter squeaked. He and Remus bolted toward the door and were halfway down the stairs by the time Sirius's foot touched the first step. He shook his head, smilingly and slid down the railing.**

 **He, Remus, and Peter walked out the portrait hole. His two friends were acting rather jumpy.**

 **"Where's James?" Remus asked after a second.**

 **"He was right behind me." Sirius said, confused.**

 **"Did, did you see him come down?" Peter asked in an even squeakier voice than usual. Sirius shook his head.**

 **"Hey, maybe your guys' demon got them." Sirius said jokingly.**

 **Peter paled a bit further.**

 **"What if it did?"**

 **"We should go back and check for him." Remus said uncomfortably.**

 **"It was a joke, there is no demon." Just as the words left his mouth there was an angry female shriek from behind them and something seized him from behind. A a yell escaped his own mouth and turned around to face the demon.**


	2. 2: The Disappearing Demon

**Chapter Two**

 **The Disappearing Demon**

 **James's Point of view**

 **"Ha, ha! Got you!" James laughed aloud on the look of complete horror on Sirius's face. Lily shook her head and walked away.**

 **"Not funny, James." Sirius growled.**

 **"Hey, you got me first." He countered still smiling.**

 **"How did you get Lily Evens to help you with that one?" Remus asked curiously.**

 **"Please," James smirked, "she was only too happy for a chance to get back at Sirius." He shuddered slightly as he said, "I don't want to see what she dose to me." Sirius laughed.**

 **"She'll probably dump glue and glitter on your head again, oh on accident of course." Sirius joked.**

 **"That's not important right now." Peter almost whined. "What do we do about the demon?"**

 **"There is no demon, Peter." James sighed. It was getting rather annoying, now.**

 **"Prove that there isn't." Peter retorted hotly.**

 **"Prove that there is." Sirius snapped.**

 **"Fine." He retorted. "I will. I'll wait for the demon to show up, and I'll take its picture, then will you believe us?"**

 **"Peter, that could be dangerous." Remus warned, but James cut across him.**

 **"Okay, Wormtail." He said. "Take a picture of this demon, and we'll believe you." Peter's face was set.**

 **"You got it." said he.**

 **"Peter," Remus hissed, "that thing has got to be dangerous and I don't think it will fancy its picture being taken."**

 **"Well, what can we do about it on our own? I'm no help and you'll be gone three nights a month." Peter muttered.**

 **"Fine, but I'm going to stay up with you." Remus whispered.**

 **Peter's Point of view**

 **He looked out the window as they passed it, rather, he tried to. The whole window was covered in snow and ice. It was impossible to see anything out of it. It was the same story for every window they passed on their way to the great hall. It was covered with ice and snow. This would not help his efforts of trying to get a picture of the demon, he did not want to be in the same room as it. Something fell behind them, making both Remus and himself jump. James and Sirius laughed at them again. Peter was attempting to look out another window when a hand suddenly appeared in the snow, it was so pale it was hard to see it. He gasped and jumped back. Sirius, James, and Remus looked over at the frost and ice. Remus bit his lip, but James and Sirius laughed.**

 **"Someone just put their hand on the window." James said shrugging.**

 **"We're on the third floor landing." Remus replied.**

 **"Oh, so now your demon flies?" Sirius asked.**

 **"Why not?" Remus challenged. "We don't know what kind of demon we're dealing with.**

 **"Some demons can fly." Peter reasoned. They shook their heads but said nothing more.**

 **When they walked into the great hall Peter's attention was immediately drawn to the incredible cold. He shivered, and he wasn't the only one who felt it. Students had their cloaks and scarves wrapped tightly around them. The professors had confused expressions on their faces and they were talking to each-other in whispers, evidently wondering why it was so cold. It felt like the torches weren't giving off any heat. Peter's eyes were drawn to something moving in the corner of his vision. He turned his attention to it and with a jolt he recognized the girl he saw out the window. She was standing in the corner. She put a finger to her lips as though to tell Peter not to call out and disappeared. He leaned in and hissed into Remus's ear;**

 **"I saw her again, she was just here, she's following us."**

 **"She's already mad at us, just for seeing her, taking her picture will only infuriate her more." Remus muttered**

 **"If she's already angry," James joined in at a whisper, "Why not make her more mad?"**

 **"What are we whispering about?" Sirius asked in a low but joyful voice.**

 **"The demon." Peter and Remus answered at the same time. Sirius rolled his eyes and he and James took off. Peter and Remus shared a look, then sat down as quickly as possible. James and Sirius slid onto the bench in front of them, side by side, with mischievous grins.**

 **"If anyone asks, we were here the whole time." James said quietly. Peter nodded distractedly, he was still thinking about the demon.**

 **There was a loud bang and a shriek followed by a purple cloud of smoke. James and Sirius looked at each other and they simultaneously burst out in laughter, though they stifled it with their hands. Two frightened-looking second years came running into the great hall with singed robes. Their Ravenclaw ties were the only thing of them that had not been died purple, though there were magenta splotches on them. The whole hall burst out with laughter, James and Sirius removing their hands from their mouths, and after a moment the two Ravenclaws joined in. Remus gave a sniff of disapproval, but said nothing. Peter was still too worried to say anything or join in the laughter.**

 **Later that night Peter was sitting in front of the window, staring out at the grounds. Remus used a heating charm to clear the snow off the window. Both of them had cameras in their hands. The clock next to them switched to 3:00 and there was suddenly a dull, red, pulsing light that appeared on the grounds. After a second the figure of the demon materialized. She looked up at them and Peter fumbled with the camera. He snapped a picture, as did Remus. Then, they ducked underneath the window ledge. Peter held his breath for a minute.**

 **"Check and see if she's still there." Remus's voice was barely louder than James's quiet snoring.**

 **"Me?" Peter squeaked, he was near paralyzed with fear. "No way, you check." He was never brave like his three friends.**

 **"Fine." Remus whispered reluctantly. He stood very slowly and turned his head to look out the window. He straightened all the way up. "It's all clear." He said. Peter stood slowly. He looked at the photograph from the instant camera that was in his hand. What he saw was a very blurry black and white scene of what would have been a pristine winter wonderland that was the Hogwarts grounds. There was no demon in the picture.**

 **"I missed." Peter said. He was expecting the picture to be blurry, he was a horrible photographer. He didn't know why the demon wasn't in it, but then he realized she was probably just blurred in with the back ground.**

 **"So did I." Remus said ruefully. Peter groaned.**

 **Remus looked down at his picture, and Peter looked at it over his shoulder.**

 **"Wait, you got a perfect shot of where she was standing." He said hesitantly. "Look, you can see her foot prints in the snow just there, but nowhere else, like she was wearing an invisibility cloak when you took the picture."**

 **"Yeah, but she couldn't have been, we were both looking straight at her." Remus sounded confused.**

 **"Yeah... How are we going to prove she exits then?"**

 **"I have an idea. The demon might have a particular time it likes to appear, so for the next few nights, we'll watch the window for her and take a picture of her foot prints. Then we'll record the time she appeared. Today it was 3:00 exactly," he marked the time on the picture, "we should record thrice for every day of the week just to be sure, then once we establish her preferred time, we can get James and Sirius to stay up until then, and they'll see her." Remus's tone made it appear as though it was the most obvious solution in the world.**

 **"That will take ages, though." Peter complained.**

 **"What's more important, doing it correctly or doing it fast?" Remus challenged.**

 **"Fine." Peter grumbled.**

 **The next night, Peter was taking turns glancing at the clock and out the window. Once again when the clock's hands switched over to 3 the red light materialized, followed instantly by the girl. Remus took another picture and they ducked underneath the window ledge again. Peter scribbled the time on the picture and glanced at it, this time the tips of her tattered black shoes were visible in the snow.**

 **"Remus," he hissed.**

 **"What?" he whispered, leaning over, closer to him.**

 **"Look at the picture, you can see her feet now." He muttered back.**

 **"Weird, maybe, she has some sort of immunity to pictures and its waring off." Remus said.**

 **"You can't be immune to pictures." Peter argued.**

 **"Well, Demons aren't exactly logical, now are they?" Remus countered.**

 **"Fair enough." Peter said. He slipped the picture in a small box, along with the one from the previous night. The box had the label 'The Disappearing Demon' written across it in the neatest handwriting he had ever used, which still wasn't that neat. The next night when the clock reached three they snapped a picture of the demon again. Peter took the picture and labeled it with the day of the week and time. This time you could see all the way to the top of her short boots. He looked closer at it for a moment and noticed the heels on them were black, coiled serpents. He put the box under his bed and curled up under the covers of his bed. Remus had already fallen asleep.**

 **Peter labeled the picture in his hand;**

 **'Third Monday, 3:00'. You could see the entirety of the little demon girl now, all the way up to her sickening smile and fathomless eyes. He shook his head. James and Sirius had kept up a relentless barrage of teasing about the demon, he and Remus had not shown them the pictures. He tucked the picture away in the box. The next night at exactly 3:00, Remus took another picture of the demon. Peter put the day and time on it again, and notice the demon looked like it was closer to the window now, but he was sure he was only imagining it. Two nights later, however, he knew he wasn't. He compared the pictures from Monday and Thursday, the demon was much closer to the window.**

 **It was now three days until Christmas Vacation, Peter would normally stay at Hogwarts, but now he was too afraid to. Another thought crossed his mind, what if the demon was to follow him home? The castle was most definitely safer than his house. He put down his name to stay and so did, to his relief, Remus. James and Sirius were both going home. The next night it was obvious the demon got closer. Remus had noticed it too. They tossed the picture in the box with the others. Peter, having nothing better to do, decided to go through the box. He looked at all the pictures and their captions. Every picture from Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday was at 3:00 exactly, on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, however, they were always at 4:52 exactly. He put them back in the box, organizing them by date. That night, Sunday, they were waiting by the window once more. Once the minute of 4:52 came, there was a deafening bang. Remus, who had the camera pointed at the window, accidently took a picture. When the flash of light illuminated the room, Peter could see the demon's grotesque face, pressed up against the window.**

 **The two of them both yelled and feel backward. The demon put a finger to her lips and laughed. Her laugh carried easily through the glass, as though she had been standing right next to them. Peter was frozen to the spot. There was a flash of dull, red light and she was gone. Remus was shaking, and even more pale than usual. He picked up the picture, which had fallen to the ground. Instead of the demon being there, there were letters written on the window, in some dark, dripping substance. The letters spelled out;**

 **"Peter". Peter gave a whimper and looked at the window, there was nothing written on it, but there was a handprint. Remus neared the window, still shaking. He raised his wand up and called,**

 **"Lumos!" The wand tip ignited, sending light over the darkened room. The handprint was dark read, and dripping. What was more was, the handprint was on the inside of the window.**


	3. 3: The Nightmare Before Christmas

**Chapter Three**

 **The Nightmare Before Christmas  
**

 **Peter's point of view**

 **Peter was in a full blown panic mode now.**

 **"We need to tell someone." He squeaked. "We have to, or both of us are going to die."**

 **"It want's you..." Remus began slowly. Peter's heart dropped, he was sure Remus was about to say that he was going to go home after all and leave Peter with the demon. "The way I see it, you can't be alone until the demon is caught." Peter's heart lifted back up, though still thoroughly terrified, Peter was quite touched that Remus wasn't abandoning him. "I agree with you, come on, we're going to see professor Dumbledore, bring the pictures."**

 **Peter picked up the box and followed Remus out of the dormitories and into the deserted corridors. Remus, the prefect, led him up to the gargoyles, that Peter knew, hid the entry way to Dumbledore's office.**

 **"Fizzing Whizzbee." He said, firmly. The gargoyle sprang to life and jumped aside. Remus lead the way up the staircase, which was moving.**

 **"Is he going to be awake?" Peter asked, skeptically.**

 **"He's Dumbledore, he always knows when something's going to happen." Before Peter could respond to this, Remus grasped the gryffin knocker and rapped on the door.**

 **"Enter." Dumbledore's soft voice called. Remus pushed the door open and walked into the room, Peter following close behind him, not wanting to get caught in the staircase alone. Four, spindly legged tables stood at various points in the office, covered in silver instruments, which Peter couldn't even guess the uses of. Dumbledore looked pleased, but not at all surprised to see them. "Well, well. To what do I owe this late pleasure, boys?"**

 **"Sir," Remus began. He hesitated, looking over his shoulder toward Peter, who met his uncertain glance with an equally uncertain one. "We- we ran into something that we think might threaten the safety of the student's here."**

 **Dumbledore raised his eyebrows.**

 **"You did?" He asked. His tones remained gentle and Grandfatherly.**

 **"Yes, sir." Remus answered. He motioned for Peter to bring the box. Peter put the box on Dumbledore's desk and took the lid off. The head master took the first picture on the pile. It was one of the first pictures of the fully formed demon girl.**

 **"While this would be very disturbing to someone seeing this in the present time, it doesn't necessarily mean she is a threat." Dumbledore said kindly.**

 **"With all do respect, sir." Peter piped up, Remus looking at him as though he had never seen him plainly before. "That demon has been following us, for the past three weeks, and tonight it wrote my name on the window with blood, and left a bloody handprint on the inside of the window." Peter showed Professor Dumbledore the picture. He frowned.**

 **"This," He said, "does seem like a threat. I'll take it from here, boys, if you will leave these pictures with me." He finished reassuringly.**

 **Peter and Remus returned to Gryffindor common room in much higher spirits than they had been. If Dumbledore was taking care of it, Peter reasoned, than they really had nothing to worry about. They both went up to the dormitories. Remus, having just finished with a nasty full moon cycle, collapsed on his bed and fell asleep instantaneously. Peter had almost fallen into a welcome sleep, but a loud thump broke him out of his daze. He looked up to see the demon girl crouched on the window cill. Her finger was to her lips in a gesture meaning silence. Peter opened his mouth, but no sound came out.**

 **Remus's point of view**

 **He woke up expecting to see Peter sitting on his bed with a bored expression. Instead, he was greeted by Peter's belongings scattered all over the floor, bloody hand prints on the window, walls, floor, Peter's bed, and Peter gone. He screamed loudly and ran straight out the dormitory and common room, for the head master's office.**


	4. 4: Master of Fright, Angel of Light

**Chapter Four**

 **Master of Fright Angel of Light**

 **Peter's point of view**

 **Peter knew he was going to die there, in the dark room. He thought of how James and Sirius had laughed at him for thinking the demon was real and a savage pleasure stole over him when he thought of how horrible they would feel when they found that the demon had taken him and that it really did exist. Then, he thought of Remus and how bad he must already feel. He was sure Remus would beat himself up for not staying awake that night, even though he probably wouldn't have been able to save Peter if he had been awake. Peter struggled against his bindings to no avail, and even tried turning into a rat, only to find it impossible for some reason. A door opened at the opposite end of the long, rectangular room. Peter swallowed, expecting to see the demon silhouetted in the doorway. Instead it was a much taller and even slimmer girl's figure that blocked out the light. Peter could make out a long, thick braid that reached the girl's hips. Strings of different colored lights erupted to life on the walls. There were bulbs of light blue, purple, green, red, yellow, pink, and many colors besides that. The floor was a glossy hard wood, but the walls were made of age-darkened stone. The girl standing in the doorway could have been taken for the demon if she had been standing in a shadow.**

 **Her braid was pitch black, but the tips of her hair, both on her braid and bangs, were a purple-pink color on the darker side. She had large, kind, black eyes and a pale complexion. Her lips were painted black, but were smiling in a gentle expression that reminded Peter of Dumbledore. She wore tights that were darker than her hair and a sleeveless shirt of the same color. A piece of shoulder armor and small straps of the same color as her highlights adorned her shirt. A long, black cape covered her shoulders and reached down to her black, open-toed sandals which had accents of the same pink as in her hair and on her shirt. She walked into the room, and as she neared Peter her expression turned to one of displeasure.**

 **"They weren't supposed to tie you up." She said, apologetically. "I'm so sorry." She tapped the cords binding him to the chair with her forefinger and they fell away. Peter stood up quickly, rubbing his wrists where the ropes had dug into his skin. "I'm so sorry." She repeated. "My students are used to dealing with criminals, I should have specified to them the reason I wanted you here.**

 **"Why, why did you bring me here?" Peter stuttered. The girl cocked her head to one side, as Sirius often did.**

 **"Why, I thought that would be obvious, perhaps you do not know who I am." Peter shook his head. The girl was keeping oddly still, it was strange, she didn't even shift her weight over once, she hadn't even blinked as far as Peter had seen. "I am Meli Tanaka." She said kindly. "I am a skilled alchemist, a second-dan black-belt in ninjutsu, and master of the shinobi arts." She put her hands together and bowed. Peter bowed back, nervously. She beamed, as though rather pleased with something. "It is quite the honor to meet you, Master Pettigrew."**

 **"M-master Pettigrew? What do you mean, 'Master'?" Peter didn't have the slightest clue what was going on. He just knew he wanted to get out of the strange room he was in and get back to Hogwarts.**

 **"Do you not know?" She asked in a skeptical voice. "You are prophesied to be the first light based shinobi since the War of Shadows.**

 **"I- I'm sorry." Peter said. "I think you have the wrong Pettigrew, I don't even know what a shinobi is."**

 **"You are not Peter Pettigrew of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?" She asked.**

 **"I am, but I can't be the right person, I'm not even good at being a wizard."**

 **"Few shinobis are, we specialize in wandless magic."**

 **"I can't do wandless magic of any kind."**

 **"Have you ever tried?"**

 **"Well, no... but I don't know how."**

 **"That's alright, that's why I tried to bring you here, so I could teach you." Meli smiled again.**

 **"I meant to be able to teach you before Christmas, so you could return to your friends and family for the holidays, but, as my students did not retrieve you on time, I do not find this possible." She continued, brightly. "That is, of course if you accept our invitation to train with the Flametail Clan?" Peter looked up into her smiling, expectant face. How could he say no to her?**

 **"Sure." He shrugged. He had really just now come to grasp that he wasn't about to be murdered by a demon.**

 **"Oh, thank you, Master Pettigrew." She said happily, bowing again. Peter was about to bow back, but a loud thump made him stop, halfway between the action then, jump backward. A high laugh filled the air, but it was amused, not cruel. A boy with white-blonde, spiky hair and pale skin dropped down from the rafters.**

 **"I apologize, Master Pettigrew, for Moto, he is quite the prankster." He brushed a bit of confetti from his hair as he said this.**

 **"That's fine, my friends are the same way, well, not Remus." Peter said.**

 **"Thank you for understanding, Master Pettigrew." The boy said happily.**

 **James's point of view**

 **He and Sirius walked through the doors of Hogwarts side by side, laughing their heads off at a joke they didn't even think was funny. They were laughing, purely just to laugh, and soon James was laughing at Sirius's laugh, that was so dog like. Remus was standing halfway down the hall from him, with his arms crossed over his chest. His expression sobered James up instantly. Sirius's laughing abruptly stopped as well.**

 **"What's up, Moony?" James asked. To his left Sirius cocked his head to one side, slightly.**

 **"What's up, is that Peter's been kidnapped." Remus growled. James started as he saw the shadow of a wolf cross Remus's face. "It's all your fault!" Remus suddenly roared, get startled looks from those passing around them. "You just couldn't believe us could you? We told you what was happening, and you laughed it off like it was some kind of joke, and now, Peter's gone!" His voice was rising with every word. James was terrified by Remus's reaction, so much so, that his words didn't immediately register to him.**

 **"What are you yelling about, Remus?" Sirius asked in a would-be-calm tone.**

 **"The demon, Sirius, the demon! We told you it was following us, and now it's got Peter!" He snarled in response.**

 **"Hold up, you can't honestly be blaming us for this." James said, indigently.**

 **"Yeah, I am, because it's your fault. If you had just listened to us..."**

 **"It would've gotten all of us." Sirius cut across him angrily.**

 **"YOU'RE BOTH COWARDS!" Remus bellowed at the top of his lungs. "I STAYED TO HELP HIM, AND I WOULD HAVE STAYED TO HELP YOU, BUT YOU WOULDN'T HELP PETER?"**

 **"Remus, mate, it's not like that." James said hastily. The whole corridor had frozen, everyone holding their breath as if fearing Remus would round on them. Lily Evens' shocked face stood out vividly in the crowd.**

 **"What is going on here?" 's voice cut sharply through the tension. She stopped at the sight of the three of them and understanding crossed her face. "I want you three to come to my office." Her tone had changed dramatically. The trio followed to her office. "So, I see Mr. Lupin has delivered the news to you two." She said after a moment of tense silence, in which James and Sirius both kept their eyes locked on Remus, who's jaw was clenched tight. James nodded without looking away from Remus.**

 **"What happened to him?" James asked. "What happened to Peter?"**

 **"Mr. Pettigrew and Mr. Lupin came to Headmaster Dumbledore's office the first night of break with some startling news. They told him that they were being stalked be a demon girl and she had written Mr. Pettigrew's name on the window with blood." Chills shot down James's spine and Sirius shuttered. "They had many pictures to back up their claims, apparently they wanted to prove that the demon existed to you, but many of the first pictures only showed parts of the demon. The very next day, Mr. Pettigrew was nowhere to be found within the school grounds, and his part of the dormitory was covered in bloody handprints, and his belongings were scattered all over the floor." James clapped his hand over his mouth to prevent himself from retching. Sirius mirrored the action at the same time. James felt sick. If he had only believed them, Sirius would've too, and the demon would dare have attacked four people at once.**

 **"You're right, Remus." James said while they were once again walking down the cold corridors of Hogwarts.**

 **"Yeah, it's completely our fault." Sirius agreed.**

 **"No, I'm sorry. It's not your fault, it's mine. If I had stayed up, the demon wouldn't have gotten him. I'm sorry I called you cowards." Remus replied quietly.**

 **"Don't beat yourself up about it, Moony." James said, gently. "It was just after a full moon, no-one can blame you for that."**

 **"We should've listened to you, and because we didn't, Peter was kidnapped." Sirius said, obviously trying to make Remus start blaming him again. James knew why; Remus was always so hard on himself, and rarely got mad at other people, annoyed, yes, but not mad.**

 **"Sirius is right, Mate. We should've listened. You can't blame yourself for this." James put his hand on Remus's shoulder.**

 **"Yeah, okay." He replied in a voice that clearly said he didn't believe them. All throughout the day people kept stopping them,, and asking them questions about why they were so down. The trio tried to ignore them, preferring to pretend that nothing was out of the ordinary, until Remus snapped.**

 **"What do think is wrong?" He yelled at the fourth year Gryffindor boy who came up to ask for the fifth time in ten minutes. James and Sirius decided they had enough of it too.**

 **"If you haven't noticed, we're one member short." Sirius shot at him.**

 **"There was a fourth member?" The kid asked.**

 **"Yes, there is a fourth member." James said rudely. "His name is Peter."**

 **"I've never heard of him." He said.**

 **"Get lost." Sirius growled, placing a hand on Remus's shoulder. James could tell Remus was about to loose it. The three of them trooped back to the common room and slammed the portrait in the boy's face when he tried to follow them. James could not focus on anything that night. He was usually fine with homework, but he couldn't set himself to anything.**

 **Sirius seemed to be having a similar problem. He kept fidgeting, and glancing around the room, as if hoping he would see Peter come walking through the portrait hole, and it was all a misunderstanding. James definitely wished that. Even Remus was having trouble studying. He kept picking up books, opening them, then shutting them seconds later, and picking up the next. The next person to come up to them was none other than Lily Evens.**

 **"Where's that other boy?" She asked quietly, sitting next to James. Usually James's face would've started burning and he would try to say something amusing, that would make Lily glare at him, but he didn't even feel the slightest bit inclined to do that. "His name was Peter right?" She asked after it became clear no-one was going to answer her first question. James nodded with a clenched jaw. He didn't trust himself to open his mouth, fearing he might become sick if he did.**

 **"What happened to him." James opened a book, and bent over on the pretense of reading it, to disguise the tears beginning to form in his eyes.**

 **"Peter was only thirteen, that's too young to die." Remus said quietly. Lily looked startled, and even more so when James slammed his book shut.**

 **"Stop it." He growled. His voice, though very low, echoed through the nearly empty common room. "Stop talking like he's dead. He's not, they'll find him, and he'll be okay." He really wished he believed what he was saying. Sirius nodded.**

 **"Yeah, he'll be fine." It sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than the others. "Peter's probably trying to find a way to escape as we speak." Lily raised her eyebrows.**

 **"Yeah, I wonder how he's doing." James agreed.**

 **Peter's point of view**

 **"It's been nearly fourteen years since I began my training as a shinobi, and I've finally reached black-belt level. I've been training in two towns. The first, Chisana Doragon. It's a bright, sunny town with the most charming cottages you'll ever lay your eyes on. There's a forest separating it from the other town. The side closest to Chisana Doragon is a birch tree woods, with springy green grass and wild flowers, visible in the dappled sunlight that dances across the ground in shades of green and yellow. There's a small river cutting through it, it's source being a calm, quiet waterfall. Phoenixes, unicorns, nifflers, and fairies call this side home. The forest changes dramatically once you cross the border to Chisana Waru. There's no warning, besides a small traveler's sign that's splattered with blood in places. The trees become huge and towering with dark almost black wood, and branches that look like dying hands, reaching out to grab you. Some of them do reach out and grab you."**

 **"Thickets of thorny bushes cover the otherwise bare ground. It's dark and shadowy, you can hardly see where you're going. The only lights you can see are the red and yellow eyes of the forest dwellers like werewolves, dragons, vampires, and even dementors. Once in a while you'll even come across a demon or two in there. The place gives me the chills, but not even close to as badly as the town does. If, I mean when, you make it out of the forest you're rewarded by an even denser darkness, punctured by dying red street lamps that line the little dirt road that leads to the village. It leads up a large hill. when you make it to the top you can make out the silhouettes of gargantuan buildings; mansions so big you could mistake them for castles at a distance."**

 **"When you get into town there are no street lamps, the town is lit up by the moon, which is full every night (Don't ask me how). The square is just a water fountain, if you could call it that, shaped like a bat with a wolf carved in the act of pouncing with some dark red substance flowing out of its mouth into the basin. I've been guaranteed it's not blood, but you can't really trust the locals there. One woman invited me for dinner and tried to cook and eat me, when I told her I was lost. The houses that surround the square are small, and shabby looking. They could pass as the shrieking shack, and each one of them is haunted, one of them, the Dyer house (Seriously), is so haunted the locals turned it into a museum of haunted history. (I'm not making this up)"**

 **"Behind those houses, are slightly bigger houses, with the same sense of foreboding. They are also all haunted. The space behind them is one gigantic graveyard. (I swear the people who built this town were trying to get it to be haunted.) I've heard rumors circling around the academy there (only for purple belts and higher) that one of the headstones in the graveyard is a secret entrance to the underground crypt. I asked Meli Sensei, but she didn't say anything about it, so it might be true. The houses behind the graveyard are mansions that look more like monsters than living quarters. There's one that keeps moving around too, but no-one can catch it in the act. Behind them are the mansions I wrote about earlier, they're so big you'd think they were castles. If they were, they'd belong to Dracula and Frankenstein, that's for sure."**

 **Peter put his quill down and looked his parchment over again. He slapped his hand to the side of his head. He had forgotten the most important part of these towns. He picked the quill back up, dipped it in ink, and wrote;**

 **"Both of these towns have a charm placed around them. They're caught in a time warp. For every day that goes by in the real world, one whole year has gone by in these towns." He reread what he wrote and decided he liked it. He closed the journal he was writing in, so far he had filled one page in that one, but he had eight other journals, one for each belt level. Each one was the corresponding color too. His first journal white, second yellow, third orange, and so on so forth. He would end up with ten black-belt journals if he kept working hard and following in his sensei's footsteps. He was very proud of becoming a black-belt, but he was even more proud of being part of the flametail clan.**


	5. 5: Now You see Me

**Peter's point of view**

 **He was dreading returning to Hogwarts. James, Sirius, and Remus would be so angry with him, and his cover story of where he was, was ,"I don't know". He was supposed to pretend he had no recollection of the past two weeks, how he was to explain that he lost almost a hundred pounds in fourteen days was beside him. He looked in the mirror and smiled. Most people would smile when they saw this as their reflection. He was taller than he should be, about five feet, eleven inches. He was also very muscular. He weighed in at one-hundred fifty-two pounds, and almost all of it was muscle. His face had changed too, as he was no longer an animagus. He now had the ability to turn into any animal in existence, so he didn't take on the appearance of a rat any more. His jaw line was far more defined, and his face wasn't as skinny. His nose had become less pointed, and his eyes seemed to have grown a bit larger. Their color also darkened, from a light blue, almost periwinkle color to a deep, dark blue, like the ocean. His hair was much longer, and better looking. It fell just passed his shoulders and, before he had cut it a few days earlier, threatened to become just as long as Sirius's. The grayness in the shade of brown had disappeared, leaving it a shiny, chestnut color, and natural yellow-blonde streaks had appeared. His hair was now the envy of most of the girls of Chisana Doragon.**

 **He looked himself over again. He was wearing a black, short-sleeved T-shirt that was so tight on him, you could see the indent of every one of his muscles on his chest and stomach. His pants appeared to be jeans, but were actually made of a flexible, light weight material and were ripped up and down the legs, artfully. The hilts of countless daggers, kunai knives, and the points of senbons glittered on his hips. A pair of katana were strapped to his back, and shuriken and blow darts were kept in packs that hung loosely from the black-belt tied around his waist. Though he couldn't see it in the mirror, there was a golden image of a mouse with electricity shooting out of its paws and eyes on the back of his T-shirt. That's where he had gotten his nickname; The Lightning Mouse. That image had become his calling card. He picked his wand off the bedside table and blew the dust off of it. Though he had used magic a lot over the last fourteen years, he hadn't even touched his wand since he had arrived there. He placed the wand in a mechanical holster on his thigh, that would prevent it from being stolen, without him noticing. Not even the most skilled pick-pocket would be able to get at it, the holster made a noise like a cocking gun when the wand was removed from it.**

 **He turned toward the window above his dresser, and threw the covers open. Bright, warm sunlight fell onto his beaming face. The sky was cloudless, but dotted every now and then by dragons or phoenixes. A unicorn was bent over the crystal-colored stream that lay not too far away, lapping up the freezing water happily. A curious-looking buck, so young he still had spots on his back, edged up to the stream slowly and carefully, and began pawing at a lazy carp, who zipped off, away from the deer, who seemed disappointed. A large, six point stag came walk proudly from between the trees. Peter was immediately reminded of James and his face cracked into a grin. A rather large black dog was standing on the edge of a cliff near the stream. He laughed, shaking his head. He closed the drapes again, and took his hat off the bed post. He put it on his head and looked back in the mirror.**

 **The kasa didn't look right with the outfit, so he took it off and considered it for a minute. He snapped his fingers, watching in satisfaction as it slowly morphed into a black baseball cap with the lightning mouse on the back, and put it on, turning the bill to the back. It still didn't look great, but it looked better than the kasa, and he didn't have anything else to keep his things in. He had placed a number of enchantments on the hat he was now wearing, including an undetectable extension charm. He grabbed his black, leather jacket and slipped it on. He pulled on socks and laced up his shiny, black combat boots. He left his room and looked around. This was the last time he'd see the house he had lived in for twelve years, but he was going back to his real home, so he wasn't that sad about it. Hogwarts was the only place he ever felt at home, even though everyone in Chisana Doragon had been so nice to him. There was a knock on the front door.**

 **Peter crossed through the kitchen and sitting room, and opened the door. Meli Sensei was standing in the doorway, leaning against her favorite blade, the Guillotine. There was a whole legend behind the name, including that the original owner used it to cut three people's heads off in one swing. She smiled at him. He smiled back and bowed.**

 **"Good morning, Sensei." He said pleasantly.**

 **"Good morning, Peter. Are you ready to go home?" She asked.**

 **"Oh, yeah." He responded enthusiastically.**

 **"Wonderful." She said, brightly. "I'll take you back to Hogwarts." She extended her arm. Peter grasped it. The shadow of the house engulfed them, and suddenly they were standing in the shade of Hogwarts castle itself.**

 **"I love shadowporting." Peter said fondly.**

 **"Alright, get in there." Meli whispered. "By the way you have a pet cat now."**

 **"What?" Peter asked exasperatedly. "A cat? Really? Of all pets it's a cat?" Meli grimaced.**

 **"Sorry, I forgot." She apologized.**

 **"It doesn't matter, anyway, I enrolled as a student two days ago, so I don't have to go as a cat." A deep, girl's voice said from behind them. Peter whipped around.**

 **"Who are you?" He asked.**

 **"This, Peter, is Scorpion. She's your partner." Meli explained. Scorpion had long black hair that covered one of her eyes, and skin just as pale as the demon that had attacked him at Hogwarts. Her lipstick and eyes both matched her hair, and she wore a slytherin uniform.**

 **"What?" He yelled. "I'm supposed to work with her?"**

 **"Trust me I'm not to thrilled myself." She said quietly.**

 **"Sensei, with all due respect, she's a shadow, earth type, and I'm a light, air type... we're complete opposites." Peter said.**

 **"As are the rhino and the oxpecker, yet they work together perfectly." Meli said gently.**

 **"But..." A loud crash followed by screams, cut off Peter's argument. He looked over his shoulder to see flames coming from the castle, that were immediately snuffed out. He looked back to Meli.**

 **"Go!" She said. "What are you waiting around here for?" Peter took off toward the castle with Scorpion right behind him.**

 **James's point of view**

 **A loud crash sounded through the air, and several students screamed. He looked up. A jet of fire had sprung up from the ground, seemingly at random, and blew a whole in the wall of the great hall. There it was, the demon Remus had shown them pictures of, standing in the middle of the blaze. The flames disappeared just as suddenly as they had come. The grief and shame James had been feeling for the last few days turned suddenly to anger, and, judging by the growling noises coming from either side of him, Sirius and Remus felt the same way. The professors had all stood, and drawn their wands, though Professor Slughorn looked apprehensive.**

 **"Where is Peter Pettigrew?" It screeched.**

 **"You killed him!" Remus roared, jumping to his feet. The students around them looked both terrified and confused. A blind rage had filled James, forcing him on his feet, along with Sirius.**

 **"How dare you show your face here again?" He bellowed. He could feel Sirius shaking beside him.**

 **The demon raised its hand and James was lifted into the air. It felt like some invisible hand was squeezing his throat, tightly. He couldn't breathe. A barrage of spells flew from the professors James fell to the ground, gasping for breath.**

 **"James!" Sirius and Remus had dropped down beside him, to make sure he was okay. All three of them were lifted off their feet next. They, and the professors, including the headmaster, were being levitated.**

 **"He escaped from me." The demon hissed. "I know you know where he is."**

 **"Oi!" A voice rang out from the rafters. It sounded slightly familiar, but James couldn't place it. A figure in black was standing in the rafters with his arms crossed, looking down at them. He was tall and very muscular. He was almost as scary as the demon.**

 **"Who's here messing up my school?" He roared down at them. The figure took a front flip off the beam he stood on. He landed on the ground silently. A shadow was covering his face, until he straitened up. It took James a moment to realize who he was looking at. He was much taller, skinnier, and overall more handsome. He had a scar running down his left cheek, and his eyes were darker, and narrowed in dislike and anger. His hair was longer, a lot longer, and better looking, but James could tell, it was Peter.**

 **"You!" The demon shrieked. "It can't be."**

 **"Oh, it is." Peter said in a threatening tone. James didn't have a clue what was going on. "Yeah, the Lightning Mouse. I suggest you get your self out of here." The demon did not move. "Before, I change my mind." Peter growled.**

 **"Of course, M-mr. Lightning, sir." The demon stuttered, releasing the professors, Sirius, Remus, and James. The demon was gone in a flash of flames. Peter faced them. There was a moment of absolute silence. James was the one to break it.**

 **"Peter?" He asked loudly. "Is that really you?" Peter nodded.**

 **"Peter, mate, we thought you were dead." Sirius said quietly.**

 **"You can't rid yourselves of me that easily." Peter's eyes shimmered mischievously.**

 **"Where have you been?" Remus asked, angrily and with that the whole hall burst into speculation and awed murmurs.**


	6. 6: Secret Revealed

**Chapter Six**

 **Secret Revealed (All Ready, that has to be some kind of record)**

 **Peter's point of view**

 **Peter had been back at Hogwarts for only two days and everyone was already suspicious. He had wiped the memories from everyone on how he had arrived. Nobody remembered the demon, or Peter's overly dramatic entrance, but still everyone noticed something was off about Peter, who looked about as different as possible, and, being the worst student in the entire school before he went missing, now seemed to have the correct answer to everything in every class. He had changed so drastically for the good, that Professor Slughorn had began treating Peter like he did James, Sirius, and Remus, like he was the prince of Egypt or something to the equivalent. Peter had noticed something about the potions professor, that he was a collector of sorts. He took care to be extra kind to students who had well connected family or showed promise. Peter seemed to be his absolute favorite now, and he was passing all of his classes with straight O's. Remus was perhaps most intrigued out of everyone about Peter's recent behavior. He never left Peter's side, but that might also have been he didn't want Peter to disappear again. James and Sirius also hung around Peter far more than usual, and were more aggressive than ever, when they were standing up for him, not that they really ever needed to now. What startled them most, however, was something that happened on a day that, otherwise, was a perfectly average day. The snow had melted, and the sun had come out. The grass was bright green, and so were the fresh, new, young leaves on the trees. The sun had come out, and the birds had all come back. All and all it was a beautiful saturday afternoon, even the giant squid was enjoying it, but of course, it bored James and Sirius.**

 **"Excellent." James suddenly said.**

 **"Perfect." Sirius agreed.**

 **Severus Snape had come walking out of the castle, his nose buried in a book. Peter craned his neck to see the title. It was in runes, so he couldn't read it, but it sent a shiver down his spine, leading him to believe it was a book of dark magic. Snape had at least ten other books in his bag that looked just as evil as the one in his hands. Peter hadn't the slightest clue what they had been talking about, until they got up and walked over the grass, straight for Snape.**

 **"Kuso." Peter muttered, annoyed. He also stood and crossed over to the three of them. Sirius bumped Snape, purposefully, so his face actually collided with the pages of his book. James laughed loudly. Both Remus and Peter crossed their arms and sniffed in disapproval. Students had stopped what they were doing, and turned to watch James and Sirius torture Snape, as usual.**

 **"Darn, hope that wasn't a library book, Snivellus, your greasy hair probably smudged all the words." James sneered. It was Sirius's turn to laugh. Peter watched Snape closely, and could see the beginnings of tears of shame in his eyes. He turned a bit red and muttered something to James, who laughed louder than the first time.**

 **"What are you reading about anyway, Snivellus? Trying to find some charm to fix those teeth of yours?" Sirius asked.**

 **"Trust us, you won't find a charm strong enough to help you there." James smirked.**

 **"Lay off." Peter growled, stepping in between his friends and Snape.**

 **"What's he ever done to you?" He demanded. James blinked.**

 **"Erm... Peter... what are you doing?" He asked hesitantly.**

 **"When are you two going to grow up?" Peter asked, ignoring James's question.**

 **"Peter..." Sirius was cut off when Peter held his hand up for silence. Everyone was staring at Peter as though he had just turned five shades of purple.**

 **"You're behaving like children, and it's time someone put a stop to this. I'm afraid that if you two keep behaving like this, I'm going to have to report you to Professor ." James's jaw dropped and Sirius looked stunned.**

 **"Peter's right, this has gone on long enough." Remus agreed. James closed his mouth, but still seemed shocked. Peter turned to Snape, who looked just as dumbfounded as James did.**

 **"Let me know if they're giving you any trouble again, okay?" He nodded, still looking apprehensive. Peter smiled at him, then turned his attention back to James and Sirius. He narrowed his eyes at them, placing his hands on his hips. They dropped their gaze to the ground.**

 **Peter was quite pleased, but didn't let it show on his face, not even had the power to make James and Sirius ashamed of themselves. He stepped aside a bit and said;**

 **"Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?"**

 **"We're sorry, Sni-Snape." James muttered to his feet.**

 **"Yeah," Sirius agreed in the same tone. "We've been jerks."**

 **"See, now, was that so hard?" Peter asked crossing his arms over his chest again.**

 **"Yes." James replied. Peter glared at him again, and James immediately dropped his gaze. "No."**

 **"You aren't going to be bothering him anymore, are you?" Peter said in soft, but stern tones.**

 **"No." Sirius and James muttered together.**

 **"Good." Peter smiled sweetly. James and Sirius turned, and walked back to the tree the four of them had been sitting under.**

 **"Sorry about them." Peter apologized, turning back to Snape.**

 **"Thanks." Was all that Snape said in response.**

 **"Not a problem." Peter held his hand out to Severus, who took it, looking slightly suspicious still. They shook hands briefly, and Peter turned to walk back to the tree. Evens' face stood out from the crowed, because she was the only one who didn't look utterly confused and dumbfounded, she looked pleased, and nodded at him when he passed her. He nodded back. He felt a hand on his shoulder at the same time he heard a girl whisper;**

 **"Hey, Pettigrew." He nearly jumped a mile. The students outside, including James and Sirius laughed. Nothing could ever sneak up on him, but some witch had? He turned to see; Scorpion. That explained it, Scorpion was levitating ever so slightly above the ground, and she could manipulate shadows. She had snuck up on him to scare him. He laughed too.**

 **"Hello, Flametail." He said in an overly pleasant voice. They locked eyes with each-other, both refusing to look away until the other did. He narrowed his eyes, the same way he had done to James and Sirius. She dropped her eyes to the ground for a fraction of a second, before looking back up at him with a cold, defiant expression.**

 **"Is there something I can help you with?" He asked in a falsely cheery voice.**

 **"I'm delivering a message from Professor Slughorn." She said, with a meaningful look. That was a code they had, for when Meli, Sensei wanted to meet them. "He wants to see you at eight tonight." Peter nodded. Scorpion turned and walked away. Peter joined his friends under the tree.**

 **"What's he want with you?" Remus asked, somewhat nervously. Peter shrugged. He knew why Remus was nervous, this would be the first time he would be alone longer than going to the bathroom since he returned, and it would be the perfect opportunity to attack. Peter wasn't going to be alone though, at all. He'd be with a trained assassin, who was, more or less, on his side.**

 **"You in trouble for something?" James snickered.**

 **"Hypocrite." Sirius said playfully.**

 **"No... or at least I can't think of why I'd be." Peter said crossly. Snape was sitting by the lake, still looking at Peter strangely.**

 **It was almost eight o' clock, so Peter picked up his things from the common room and headed for the forbidden forest, after making sure his friends weren't following him, where he and Scorpion meet up to discuss any secret they may have. Scorpion was already there.**

 **"Where's Sensei?" He hissed. Scorpion ignored him. "Where are we going to meet her." Scorpion still said nothing. "When is she going to get here." She ignored him once more. "Do you know how to speak English?" She looked at him with her usual bored expression.**

 **"I'm sorry, were you saying something, Pettigrew?"**

 **"Why do you have to be so dang cool all the time?" Peter folded his arms.**

 **"I have no idea what you're talking about." Scorpion yawned.**

 **"Hello." Meli's voice came out of the shadows of the forest. "Good to see you two haven't killed each other yet."**

 **Severus's point of view**

 **He was crouching in the shadows, hoping they wouldn't spot him. He knew they weren't meeting Slughorn.**

 **"Oh, you're expecting me to do away with this idiot?" Scorpion asked.**

 **"In your dreams." Peter said rudely. "If one of us was to kill the other I would be the one walking away."**

 **"As if, I'm twice as powerful as you'll ever be, Pettigrew!"**

 **"Oh, glad to know you peaked at fourteen, Flametail!"**

 **"Silence!" The pale woman said firmly. Both Scorpion and Pettigrew stopped talking immediately. "You two need to learn to work together."**

 **"No way!" Peter crossed his arms.**

 **"Yeah, I would miss this too much." Scorpion flicked her wrist and Pettigrew was lifted off his feet, and suddenly he was dangling upside-down by his ankle. Peter growled and clapped his hands together. Whatever spell Scorpion had cast on him was canceled. Instead of falling on his face, however, Peter preformed a flawless front-flip and landed, crouching, on his feet. He snapped his fingers and a miniscule bolt of lightning flashed to life in his hand. He threw it straight at Flametail, who jumped up to dodge the potentially deadly weapon.**

 **"Stop this now both of you are..." the pale woman stopped mid sentence. Severus had moved out of the shadow and all three turned to look at him, he froze, then straightened up.**

 **"I knew there was something weird going on." He said firmly. "Professor Slughorn was giving remedial potions classes tonight at eight, so I knew you couldn't be meeting him, you're going to have to get a better cover story than that." He smiled smugly.**

 **"You were followed?" Scorpion hissed venomously to Pettigrew.**

 **"Er... actually, you're the Slytherin, he probably followed you." Peter shot back at her.**

 **"You got caught not even a week into your outpost." The pale woman said thoughtfully. "I'm sure that has to be some kind of record." Peter flinched.**

 **"Not exactly the kind I was going for."**


	7. 7: The Spring Blood Demon

**Chapter Seven**

 **The Spring Blood Demon**

 **Peter's point of view**

 **Peter clenched his fist over the handle of his wand, locked in a moral dilemma over wether he should Obliviate Severus's memory. He didn't really want to, but what choice did he have? The world of the Shinobi was kept a complete secret from wizards and muggles alike, in fear of some shinobis taking sides in their wars and hurting practically defenseless people. Before he could make his decision, however, Severus's eyes widened and he stepped back into the wall of the school, trembling slightly.**

 **"W-what is that?" He stuttered. Peter turned, he nearly fell backward himself. Towering above him at at least seven feet tall was the figure of a slim man, with long, ratted and tangled hair. The stench of blood filled his nostrils. He backed up slightly, coughing, his sensitive nose being effected by the smell even worse than that of the average human's. Meli Sensei was gone.**

 **"Into the castle, now!" Peter called, unsheathing his katana, his eyes watering. He saw shock steal over Severus's face. "Now!" He repeated, more forcefully. Snape turned and ran into the doors of the castle. Scorpion had followed him. "Thanks for the help, Flametail!" Peter called over his shoulder.**

 **"You're welcome." She called back annoyingly. The creature made to pick Peter up off the ground, but, mimicking a snake, he slithered out of its grip, executed a back handspring, and slipped in through the doors of the castle, slamming them shut with a satisfying bang. Severus was gaping at him, and even Scorpion looked wary. Peter heard the sharp clicks of high heels coming toward them.**

 **"Bye." Scorpion said quietly.**

 **"So you're just going to throw us to the wolves?" Peter asked.**

 **"No, the cats." Scorpion corrected him, slipping into the shadows and disappearing from view. Peter couldn't help but notice how strong the smell of blood still was.**

 **Severus's point of view**

 **came around the corner. She stopped dead in her tracks.**

 **"What happened here?" She asked, her eyes growing wide. "Why are you covered in blood, Pettigrew?"**

 **"Blood?" Peter repeated stupidly. He looked down at himself and an expression of pure horror crossed his face. "Hidoi! Kuso tawagoto." He said, obviously annoyed. Severus had no idea what that was supposed to mean and neither, evidently, did , who looked at him strangely. "Erm... I speak Japanese." Peter suddenly looked awkward.**

 **"Where did all this blood come from?" She asked.**

 **"Probably from the Chinodobutsu, if I had to guess, it did grab me... oh, hang on, you probably don't know what that is." He frowned and looked down at his robes which, for the past few days, had always been kept spotless. He extracted his wand and pointed at himself. With a flick of his wrist he siphoned off every spot of the dark blood. He smiled in a satisfied sort of way. Severus felt his jaw drop.**

 **"What do you call that?" Potter's voice called from behind them. The whole gang was here now, just wonderful.**

 **"Non verbal spell casting." Pettigrew said matter-of-factly.**

 **"But how..." Black had an expression of utter shock on his face. Petter suddenly seemed slightly embarrassed. He mumbled something at his feet that sounded a bit like like;**

 **"Picked it up."**

 **"You don't just pick that up, it takes months of practice." Lupin said in a shocked fashion.**

 **"I er..." Peter began.**

 **"Why are you covered in blood?" Black demanded.**

 **"Professor Slughorn, huh?" Potter said crossly, folding his arms over his chest.**

 **"What's going on with you?" Lupin's voice became accusatory.**

 **"Is Flametail in on this?" Potter asked.**

 **"Why is snape here?" Black eyed Severus suspiciously.**

 **"Pettigrew, I think we should speak with the Headmaster about your whereabouts during your disappearance, this time using veritaserum. If you learned magic from demons..." Potter cut across .**

 **"Peter wouldn't do anything that stupid." He said indignantly.**

 **"We can't be sure about anything at the moment..." Severus lost track of what was being said, as Black, Lupin, and Potter immediately started shouting down, who also began yelling. Pettigrew seemed to be greatly annoyed by this, and was covering his ears. He scowled, and then:**

 **"Damare!" He bellowed. Everyone stopped talking immediately, and looked at him, blinking. "It means 'shut it'." He added angrily. "You're not going to get anywhere by yelling at someone who can put you all in detention." He narrowed his eyes at Potter, Black, and Lupin again, the way he had done when Potter and Black had been picking on Severus. All three of them looked toward the ground. "She deserves a bit of respect, don't you agree."**

 **"Sorry, Professor ." The chorused together.**

 **Then, he addressed .**

 **"I do not wish to be rude professor, but I do believe I already told you that I cannot recall my whereabouts while I was missing from school, and I cannot possibly think of a reason that I would take to learning anything from a demon." Pettigrew put somewhat of a stress on the word "demon".**

 **"Of course, I would like to believe you but in this situation we cannot take any chances. Mr. Pettigrew, I need you to come to the Headmaster's office... now." Peter made a funny motion, that somewhat looked like the beginnings of a bow. There was a great crash, someone, or something, was banging on the front doors of Hogwarts.**

 **"We might want to take care of the Chinodobutsu first, though." Peter said.**

 **"The what?" Black and Potter asked together. Lupin scowled.**

 **"I've never heard of something by that name." Pettigrew frowned at the door, ignoring them. "That won't hold up for long... we need a more permanent solution."**

 **"C'mon Peter, mate, nothing can break into Hogwarts, it's the most secure place in England, if not, the world, we're fine." Potter said.**

 **"Counterfactual." He replied calmly. "The most secure place in the world is the Kiniro Giniro palace in Japan, and a demon easily broke in to Hogwarts to kidnap me, so you can construe that this demon, larger and more powerful than the last, though admittedly less intelligent, could also penetrate Hogwarts's defenses." Everyone blinked at Pettigrew, including Severus who was shocked to hear those words come out of Peter's mouth.**

 **Pettigrew seemed not to notice he said something out of the ordinary. He closed his eyes and tilted his head up toward the ceiling as though this would help him find the answer. Not even half a second later his head snapped back down and his eyes flew open. He snapped his fingers.**

 **"Akiraka ni." He said, in a tone that suggested he thought the answer was clear. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bottle of golden powder. The label was written in either Japanese or Chinese characters, but translated into english underneath. It was called Cauterization Dust. "I suggest you stand back, I'm opening the doors. Severus immediately stumbled backward, wanting to be as far away from the creature as possible, but also wanting to see what Pettigrew's plan was. Peter stepped toward the doors.**

 **"Peter," Lupin hissed, "don't be stupid."**

 **"Yeah, mate, opening the door is a bad idea." Potter agreed. For once, Severus felt the same way.**

 **"Mr. Pettigrew, do not open the door, the Headmaster will deal with this, I want all of you to go to your dormitories, now." said, sternly.**

 **"Sorry, Professor, I'm going to have to refuse that request." Peter said gently. He swung the doors open, then; he moved so quickly, Severus barely saw it. He'd made a movement somewhat a cross between a backflip and a cartwheel, and landed, crouching, on his feet. He twirled the small bottle in his fingers, and popped the cork out with his thumb.**

 **With a bellowing growl, the creature appeared in the doorway. It was a massive mound of dark, dripping liquid, that smelled like copper. Was it actually made out of blood? Now Pettigrew's plan made sense. Pettigrew threw the open bottle with deadly speed and accuracy, straight between the eyes of the creature. The bottle didn't shatter, it appeared to be absorbed into the mass of blood. At first, Severus had thought something had gone wrong, but a few seconds latter, it seemed to be shrinking, no... it was clotting together, congealing into a compressed blob of dried blood. Potter gasped, Black made a gagging sound, Lupin let out an, "oh", of understanding, and 's eyes widened.**

 **"I suppose you just picked that up as well?" Potter wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms.**

 **"Ask no questions, and I shall tell no lies." He answered, annoyingly.**

 **"And what's that supposed to mean exactly?" Black demanded. Pettigrew extracted a large, glass mason jar from his cloak. Severus had no idea why he would have that on him, or why he needed it now. Peter stooped down and scooped the congealed blood monster into the jar.**

 **His eyes widened and turned completely gold, and writing in the same color appeared on the surface of the jar as though being written by an invisible hand, reading; "Congealed Chinodobutsu". Severus felt his eyes widen and he stumbled back into the wall. Everyone looked at him, including Peter, who appeared perfectly normal again.**

 **"How, how di-did you do th-that?" He managed to stutter.**

 **"What?" Peter raised an eyebrow, sounding concerned.**

 **"You just cast a spell, without speaking, or even raising a wand... I, I just saw you do it." Pettigrew frowned.**

 **"Perhaps, you only imagined it." He said kindly. Potter rolled his eyes.**

 **"Snape, do us a favor and shut it." He said crossly.**

 **"You only didn't see him do that, because his back was turned to you." Severus pressed on. He was sure of what he saw.**

 **"I assure you, I do not know how to do wandless magic, let alone how to do so silently. It might possibly have been a hallucination..."**

 **"I'm not mad!" Severus bellowed. "I know what I saw, you did learn demon magic!" His eyes took on the gold color again.**

 **"I'm not saying, you're mad." His voice was just as soft and gentle as usual. "Stress does strange things to the human body, it's a possibility the hallucination was brought about by the fear, being attacked by a demon caused."**

 **"I'm not..." Severus trailed of. Even though he couldn't see Pettigrew's irises or pupils, he felt like his eyes were seeing into his soul. Peter's eyes returned to normal. Suddenly, he wasn't so sure he had actually seen that happen, maybe Pettigrew was right.**

 **"When you say attacked, do you mean you encountered this... creature... before?" asked. Peter nodded.**

 **"Snape and I ran into it not too long ago, we happened to be out on the grounds at the same time, that's what covered me in blood, incidentally, when it grabbed at me." He turned to Severus again.**

 **"I've been having horrible nightmares ever since I've returned to school, about the demon, sometimes I'm even sure I see her, standing in a corner, but she's not there. It's perfectly normal to imagine things after a traumatic experience." nodded.**

 **"Perhaps you should go to Madame Pompherey, Mr. Snape."**

 **"Yeah, okay." He muttered, feeling stupid. He started off toward the hospital wing.**

 **"Should I accompany him, Professor, incase something is to happen?" Peter asked.**

 **"I believe that's a good idea." She replied. Severus heard footsteps behind him, something that sounded oddly like a squeaking rat, then saw Peter come up next to him on his left, but that didn't make sense; the footsteps behind him he'd heard were off far to the right, and he could only hear his own footsteps now.** _ **Maybe**_ **, he reasoned with himself,** _ **I'm still imagining things, yes, that would make sense.**_ **About halfway down the hall, Peter stepped in front of Severus, facing him, with no trace of expression on his face. His usual bright smile was missing, so was the kind, mischievous glint in his eyes, that was almost always present, since he got back.**

 **"I wasn't imagining things, was I?" Severus asked, suddenly wary.**

 **"No, you weren't." His voice had become steely an dangerous. "Now that you know, I'm going to have to kill you."**

 **"What?" Severus gasped. "No, please, I- I won't say anything about it again, I promise, I-I'll pretend that I imagined it, I'll keep your secret, please don't kill me." He felt completely weak and powerless. He'd always thought that he was dangerous, but no, now Pettigrew was the dangerous one.**

 **"Lighten up, yeah? I'm only joking... but if you tell a soul about this, I will wipe the memories from your brain on everything you've ever done at Hogwarts, and you'll have to start all over again, and I won't stop James and Sirius from tormenting you." There was something off about him. Something wasn't right. Even when Severus was witnessing Pettigrew doing what he was sure was demon magic, he wasn't like this. He still seemed like Pettigrew. This wasn't the person that had stood up for him.**


	8. 8: An Unlikely Partnership

**Chapter Eight**

 **An Unlikely Partnership**

 **James's point of view**

 **Peter sat on his bed, reading a thick book, but James could not read the title, it was in another language. Japanese, maybe, or Chinese. There sure were a lot of things going on with Peter, and he had to know. Peter was always so anxious to impress, so why wasn't he going on and on about how he could do nonverbal spell casting now? Why wasn't he bragging about how fit he'd gotten? Why did he keep disappearing and coming back with bruises, cuts, and flecks of blood on him, then acting like nothing happened. Why was he acting so... distant, lately, especially after that incident with the Chi Do Boosoo or whatever he'd called it? Most of all, why wasn't Peter telling them, they were supposed to be best friends, and if he was keeping secrets, was Snivellus telling the truth? Did Peter learn demon magic? Sure, James had jumped to his defense immediately, but that was just it, he hadn't thought about it. Perhaps Peter wasn't really even Peter... no that was stretching way too far into speculation, but it could be true. James shook his head. He looked to his left at Sirius, who was crouched down, mirroring James's position, behind James's bed. They were waiting for Peter to leave the dormitories again, so they could follow him to wherever he was going. Just as they had expected, Peter closed the book and put it down beside him.**

 **"I'm going for a walk." He announced as Sirius mouthed his oh so predictable words. Remus gave a grunt. Peter walked across the room, toward the door, but stopped just short of it. "Don't bother trying to follow me, James and Sirius." He pointed his wand at them over his shoulder, and the invisibility cloak was yanked off of them.**

 **"How did you..." Sirius's question was cut off by the door slamming as Peter exited. James picked up the cloak and threw it over his shoulders again.**

 **"You're still going?" Remus asked, his tone completely neutral. He was taking Peter's recent behavior very hard, the two of them had been almost as close as James was with Sirius, they were like brothers, and now Peter was hardly talking to him.**

 **"Of course, I've got to find out what's going on. This probably sounds selfish, because he's doing so much better for himself now, but I miss the old Peter, or even the one who stood up for Sni... I mean Snape. At least he still acted like our lovable little dork." James answered defiantly.**

 **"I agree, mate, I want him back too... maybe you should go by yourself, you'll make less noise." Sirius nodded.**

 **"Yeah... Remus?"**

 **"What?" He snapped.**

 **"We'll find out what's going on, and we'll get our Peter back... it'll be fine." James said, bracingly. Remus looked up. His expression said that he really wanted to believe it, but didn't.**

 **"I know." Was all he said.**

 **James snuck out of the dormitory, quiet as possible, just in time to see Peter walking out the portrait hole. James followed, trying not to wake the fat lady, who was snoring away in her frame. Slowly, silently, he trailed behind Peter, hardly daring to breathe. James almost tripped, and Peter turned around, staring straight at James, who had frozen in place, as though he could see right through the invisibility cloak.**

 **"James?" He called, now scanning the rest of the hall. James was holding his breath, not moving even the slightest bit. Peter narrowed his eyes, but it didn't have the effect on James that it had the day he and Sirius had been picking on Snape. The, Peter's eyes were full of disappointment and just the slightest hint of annoyance, now, they looked very angry, very cruel. Peter turned and continued down the hall, and James followed, more cautiously still. After a while, James had followed Peter out onto the grounds. Peter made his way around the lake a few times. James couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, it looked like Peter really had only gone for a walk after all. Then, suddenly, Peter stopped walking. "I told you not to follow me, James." He growled. He looked up toward the sky. What happened next made James yell out in horror. "You should have just stayed inside." Peter hissed. "Now that you've seen this, I can't risk you telling anyone, can I?"**

 **"W-what are you?" Was all James managed to choke out.**

 **Sirius's point of view**

 **James had been gone for a while, but, then again, Peter hadn't come back yet, either. Sirius was starting to get worried, about both of them. Just as he was about to propose that he and Remus should go to look for them together, the door flew open, and Peter came in, dragging James by the ear.**

 **"I thought, I told you not to follow me." Peter growled. A large portion of James's left arm seemed to be missing, then, Sirius realized, he must have his invisibility cloak draped over his arm. James scowled, slapping Peter's hand away.**

 **"You did, but I didn't listen." He snapped back. Peter glared at James. Sirius expected that James would have recoiled, seeing as Peter now had a better death stare than a basilisk, but he merely glared right back. James chucked his invisibility cloak into his trunk with a very moody expression on his face.**

 **"Erm... mate, you okay?" Sirius asked him, cautiously.**

 **"Just peachy." James snapped, sarcastically.**

 **"Okay, then." Sirius said slowly.**

 **"You're going to start acting like a prat too?" Remus demanded crossly.**

 **"What's that supposed to mean?" Peter hissed at him. Remus slammed his book shut and shot to his feet.**

 **"You know exactly what it means." He growled. You could easily hear a wolfish tone in his voice.**

 **"No, I don't, care to say?" He retorted.**

 **"All we're trying to do is help you and be your friends, and all you can do is shut us out and yell at us." Remus snarled.**

 **"Maybe that's because I don't need help or friendship from losers like you three." Remus looked like he'd been slapped in the face, and Sirius definitely felt like he'd just been punched in the gut.**

 **"W-what?" Remus stuttered.**

 **"You can't mean that." Sirius said weakly.**

 **"Losers, huh? At least I never had to hang around people twice my brains, skill, and power so I didn't get beat up all the time." James shot at him. Sirius was about to jump to Peter's defense, but Peter made that perfectly unnecessary. He turned on the spot and James let out a gasp of pain. For a second Sirius wasn't sure what happened, but then he saw Peter's right hand was balled into a fist and pulled back at his side, while his left was open, the tips of fingers close to James's gut. Peter had just struck James, and very hard it seemed, because for a moment, James seemed to be to stunned to move. Then, James coughed up something dark, something wet. Sirius could suddenly smell blood on the air. Had Peter really hit James that hard? James gave a small shutter and a moan of pain, then his knees buckled. Sirius rushed forward to catch him before he hit the ground.**

 **"What the hell?" Remus roared. Peter completely ignored him.**

 **"Twice my power, huh? I'd like to see you do that." He turned and strode out of the dormitories.**

 **"James, James, mate, can you hear me?" Sirius shook him slightly. James grunted, but his eyes didn't open. Remus knelt next to him and began unbuttoning James's shirt. Sirius didn't question it, knowing Remus knew what to do. There was a big, nasty looking bruise at the base of James's chest. Muttering under his breath, Remus ran his wand over the mark, taking care not to touch the tip to his skin. A white light engulfed James, who shuttered, then it slowly disappeared. James's eyes slowly fluttered open. He muttered,**

 **"The bastard", then his head fell to one side and his eyes closed again.**

 **James's point of view**

 **It was dark and cold. He wasn't sure where he was, or how he'd gotten there, but he knew he didn't want to be there anymore. All around him, pinpricks of lights would suddenly flash. every time it was a different color, though some colors repeated themselves. There were voices whispering around him. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he wanted to. No, he wanted to leave, and find Peter. He wasn't sure where he was, or how he'd gotten there, but he knew he didn't want to be there anymore.**

 **Remus's point of view**

 **Something was definitely not right. The James he knew would never have said anything like that to one of his friends, and the Peter he knew would never hit one of his friends hard enough to cause bleeding, or his enemies for that matter. Peter was just too gentle to do that, even if he had the ability, which Remus, until now, had doubted that he did. No, something was definitely out of place here. James was in the hospital wing right now, so asking him what'd happened when he followed Peter was out of the question. Neither Sirius nor Remus told Madam Pompherey that Peter had hit James, they were leaving the decision of telling up to James, but, apparently, he'd chosen not to. Loyalty above all else, that, at least, sounded like James. Remus was terrified, but mostly sad. If this kept up, James and Peter wouldn't be able to lay eyes on each other without a barrage of curses flying through the air, and that meant no more full moon strolls as the four Marauders, it would probably just be him and Sirius, but then what. Peter didn't want to be their friend anymore, and that hurt more than his transformations. James had told both Sirius and Remus to get lost, when they tried to visit him in the hospital wing, and Remus was pretty sure that stung Sirius a fair bit. Peter was like a brother to Remus, but, obviously, Peter never returned those feelings, and thought Remus was useless. He'd always thought that James and Sirius were even closer than he and Peter, but now it seemed like James wanted nothing to do with either of them.**

 **Remus could feel something building in his chest, but he couldn't figure out what it was. He guessed he shouldn't feel as bad as he was, he still had Sirius. Just as Remus started to think of him, her rounded the corner with a slight frown. When he saw Remus, a sad sort of smile spread across his face.**

 **"Hey, Moony." His tone was bright, but held a badly disguised note of sorrow.**

 **"Hey, Padfoot." He knew his voice probably sounded the same.**

 **"Erm... Remus, I've been thinking..."**

 **"I thought I smelled something burning." Remus joked. Sirius snorted, a familiar, happy shine to his eyes had returned. Remus was glad that he could distract Sirius from the issue at hand, for a bit at least.**

 **"Well, I was thinking about... about what Snape said, that night with the whole blood monster thing." He sounded uncomfortable.**

 **"What about it?" Remus asked.**

 **"What if... well, just keep an open mind, I know it sounds farfetched, but if Peter was kidnapped by... well, by a demon, maybe he didn't learn demon magic, but he was possessed or replaced by one, a demon I mean. Then, when James followed him, Pretend Peter caught him and James was possessed or replaced." He said. He paused then; "Now that I'm saying it out loud it sounds even dumber." He mumbled.**

 **"No," Remus said slowly. "It almost makes sense. We should look into it." Someone just behind them snorted. They both turned to see Snape leaning against the wall.**

 **"What's so funny, Sni... er, Snape?" Sirius demanded.**

 **"He wasn't possessed or replaced when he got back, now was he?" He replied with an infuriating superior look.**

 **"Yeah, how would you know?" Remus asked.**

 **"Well, think about it, was he acting strange when he first returned, and I mean other than his grades picking up so fast."**

 **"No, not really." Sirius admitted.**

 **"And," Snape continued, "he fought a demon after he'd returned, he would've been forced to reveal himself if he was a shapeshifter in the middle of a battle with another demon, and, had he been possessed, you'd be able to tell a difference in his eyes... you didn't notice anything strange about his eyes, did you?"**

 **"No." Remus was the one to admit to that this time.**

 **"I did." Remus blinked at Snape's pronouncement.**

 **"Yeah, and what did you notice?" Sirius challenged.**

 **"I noticed that when doing bits of wandless magic, his eyes would become completely one color; that was gold. I put some research behind it, and demons can't have a magical aura of gold, only black, red, green, and grey. Your friend is able to use some sort of advanced magical warfare that I've never even heard mention of, let alone seen before, but he couldn't have been possessed or replaced at that moment. When he followed me, however, something odd happened."**

 **"What do you mean by odd?" Remus inquired.**

 **"I heard him coming up behind me far to my right, then, I heard a squeaking sound, like a rat had gotten it's tail trodden on," Remus felt his eyes widen, "and then Pettigrew came into my field of view, but to my left, and I couldn't hear any footsteps, beside my own."**

 **"That is strange," Remus conceded, "but what does that..."**

 **"I was just getting to that." Snape said impatiently. "He stepped in front of me after that, and told me that since I'd seen him do wandless magic, he'd have to kill me." Sirius gasped. "I don't know Pettigrew well, but he didn't seem like the kind of person to threaten someone's life. Then, he told me he was only joking, but if I ever breathed a word of his advanced magic, he'd erase all of my memories from Hogwarts and make me start all over again. The look in his eyes was terrifying. He'd stepped in to stand up for me just the other day, and his eyes were nothing like this. They were kind, mischievous, this time, they were... well, looking at them made me feel like I was about to drop dead if I didn't look away, but they also paralyzed me in a way."**

 **Sirius whistled.**

 **"So you think Peter was possessed or replaced by a demon after he fought that mad blood creature thing?" He asked. Snape nodded.**

 **"Why are you helping us?" Remus inquired.**

 **"I never had anything against Pettigrew in particular, even less so after he helped me, and never had anything against you, either Lupin. If Pettigrew's in trouble and you want to help him, I'll give you any information I can, that you might need."**

 **"Is this because Peter was the only one ever kind enough to be nice to you?" Sirius asked, slyly. Snape's face turned red.**

 **"Shut it, Black." Snape snarled.**

 **"Yeah, Sirius, if he's going to help us, we might as well be nice about it." Remus said.**

 **"Oh, fine." Sirius huffed.**

 **"The question still stands, even if we do figure out where they are or, if they're possessed, what they are, how are we going to bring them back, or free their minds?" Remus asked, thoughtfully. Snape snapped his fingers.**

 **"Flametail." He said.**

 **"Flametail?" Sirius repeated, evidently just as confused as Remus was.**

 **"She's a new student, she registered four days before Pettigrew returned, to my knowledge. I ended up stumbling across a bit of a meeting between..." He trailed off.**

 **"Between who?" Remus asked, excitedly. Snape just shook his head.**

 **"Who, Snape? You said you'd give us what ever information we needed." Sirius said angrily.**

 **"I can't say, she'll kill me." Snape seemed extremely interested with his shoelaces at the moment.**

 **"Oh." Sirius almost looked apologetic.**

 **"Okay, so how is she going to help?" Remus asked. Infuriatingly, Snape chose to reply with;**

 **"Dunno yet, do I?" With that, he turned and walked down the hall, his cloak flowing out behind him as though caught in a breeze.**

 **"You wanna bet he uses a charm to make his cloak do that?" Sirius whispered.**


	9. 9: The Bloodstained Cages

**Chapter Nine**

 **The Bloodstained Cages**

 **Sirius's point of view**

 **There was an unspoken rule at Hogwarts, that everyone knew. It was that Gryffindors and Slytherins did not speak to each other, without throwing insults, but since when did Sirius pay attention to the rules? That was just about the only rule he hadn't broken yet, but that was about to change. The heads of everyone in the Great Hall turned as Snape marched purposefully toward the Gryffindor table. He was holding an extremely thick book that, not all that surprisingly, looked like it was on dark magic.**

 **"Lupin, Black," he stated in a voice that sounded as though a loved one of his had recently died, "I'd like a word with you." Sirius, surprising even himself, stood and followed Snape out of the Great Hall. Remus was trailing behind them with a wary expression.**

 **"Okay, I'll bite," Remus began as soon as they were out of the Great Hall.**

 **"Please don't, Dumbledore'll be miffed." Sirius whispered. Thankfully, Remus didn't seem to hear him.**

 **"Why do you sound so remorseful all of a sudden?" He finished.**

 **"I was speaking with Flametail, and I was able to convince her that my questions were hypothetical. She gave me this book, and told me to figure the answer out for myself, and I have..."**

 **"Bad news?" Sirius guessed. Snape suddenly looked uncomfortable. He opened his mouth, then closed it a few times, as if trying to find the right words, then, gave up, opened the book, and turned it to show them the page, turning his head away and squeezing his eyes shut. On the page was a picture of a grotesque creature, a skeletal deer, standing on hind legs with flesh clinging to its bones in strips, blood dripping from fangs, with a caption reading Shapeshifters: Skinwalkers. "What is that?" Sirius asked, taken aback by the detailed, gory picture.**

 **"My aunt Surly." Snape said sarcastically. "It's a Skinwalker, you twit. It says so right underneath the picture."**

 **"And..." Sirius prompted, annoyed.**

 **"And, a skin walker has the ability to instantaneously copy anyone's appearance, and they have the ability to asexually reproduce." Sirius snorted, in spite of himself. "That means they multiply, Black." Snape snarled. Sirius sobered immediately.**

 **"There could be hundreds of them walking around the school in just a matter of weeks, and we might never know who's been replaced, and because these are intelligent beings, they will switch places with the friends of their original victims first, so suspicion is limited. That also means you two, Flametail, and I are next. You two, because you already noticed the impostors, me because I noticed them, and because I understand the way they work, and Flametail because she knows Pettigrew a bit and would be a threat to any supernatural creature trying to gain entry to the castle." Snape seemed to pale a bit, Sirius hadn't thought it would be possible if he hadn't seen it.**

 **"While that is foreboding and everything, I still think we should focus on trying to find Peter and James." Remus said.**

 **"I agree." Sirius nodded quickly.**

 **"About that..." Snape swallowed. "S-skinwalkers often... erm..."**

 **"Come on, Snape, spit it out." Sirius growled.**

 **Severus's point of view**

 **"They, erm... well they often..." It was actually physically difficult to get the words out of his mouth, "eat... the... the victims they replace." Lupin and Black both went pale as snow, and Severus grimaced.**

 **"P-peter and J-james have b-been eaten by Skinwalkers?" Lupin stuttered.**

 **"Hypothetical, huh?" A deep, quiet, female voice asked. Severus jumped and turned around to face the girl. It was Flametail, of course. Severus didn't feel like talking to her at the moment. He pushed the book into her stomach, forcing her to take t back.**

 **"Take that wretched thing back, it has the darkest magic in it I've ever seen, and I'm sure it's been moving around." He growled, wanting nothing more than to rid himself of the book.**

 **"Of course it moves around, all of my books are possessed by at least one spirit." Severus felt fear course through his body and physically recoiled away from the book. "This isn't even the darkest book I own either, I have a few dedicated to torture curses, a whole bunch on blood magic, and a few dedicated to theoretical magic like necromancy and immortality spells that involve murder, and have to be done annually." He felt both Black and Lupin shift behind him, and he almost felt the urge to run the opposite way.**

 **"By the way, this entry is slightly out of date, it's been proven that they don't actually eat their victims, they tend to be herbivores, though it varies, but you'd have a hard job finding them. Nobody knows where Skinwalkers take their victims, although, there is a quite famous lycanthrope slayer," here she shot an icy stare in Lupin's direction, "who also specializes in magical creatures, I've heard she even has a pet basilisk, who might be able to help. Siren, they called her... but she'll be hard to find too, dropped off of the face of the earth two years ago... nobody even knows what she really looked like, always wore a hood." With that, she turned and walked away, her cloak dragging across the floor, not being picked up by the breeze the movement should have created. He was so surprised by that, and the fact that Pettigrew might be alive, that he almost didn't notice that she didn't have a shadow, what exactly was she? He turned back to Lupin and Black, who looked ecstatic.**

 **"What are you so happy about, you heard her, we can't find them." Severus cocked his head to one side, genuinely curios.**

 **"I thought you said you wanted Peter back." Black suddenly growled.**

 **"W... I, I do." Severus faltered.**

 **"Then why, in the name of Merlin's sodding beard are you giving up so easily?" Lupin asked hotly.**

 **"I... erm..."**

 **"Yeah, Snape. If you don't want to help, get out of our way." Black pushed his way passed him, Lupin shadowing him, though, admittedly, not shoving him so hard. He thought for a moment, to weigh out the options. If he didn't help them, they'd probably never find Potter and Pettigrew... but that's as far as his thoughts went, because suddenly, as though he'd planned to do it all along, he ran down the corridor after them.**

 **"I want to help." He muttered, when he caught up.**

 **He didn't go to a single class that day, neither did Black or, to Severus's surprise, Lupin. The three of them spent the entire day pestering Flametail to give them different types of books, reading them(Severus was forced to read the darkest ones, which he was sure would give him nightmares for a while), returning them, and repeating the process, searching everywhere trying to find out more about "Siren", but they found nothing, and Flametail was getting very irritated with them. They went on like that until curfew, the only thing that happened that was out of the ordinary, was that Severus had found a picture in a book that he had seen only once before, the night before that one, in a dream. In that dream he'd been in the library, sitting next to Lupin, reading a book on taming the darkest creatures, and remembered seeing that specific picture. After Black and Lupin left, presumably to their common rooms, Severus found himself roaming the dank dungeons alone, just thinking. He sighed when he found himself at the Slytherin portrait hole, he was sure everyone was going to hate him even more than usual. He opened the portrait hole cautiously after muttering the password(Serpensortia). To his great surprise, everyone ignored him. He breathed a sigh of relief and went straight up to his dormitories. While changing into his pajamas, he got a horrible headache.**

 **He climbed into his bed, squeezing his eyes shut against the pain. Sleep couldn't come fast enough, but, why wouldn't it, it took it's sweet time. The darkness around him shifted, it didn't get lighter or darker, it just felt different, like his eyes were wide open, but he still couldn't see. Blue lights flashed in front of his eyes, illuminating metal cages stained with dark substances, hanging from chains, but he was sure he hadn't fallen asleep yet. The penetrating darkness was only getting deeper, more real, becoming inescapable. His head turned of it's own accord, but that was useless, as he still couldn't see anything. A sense of calm, for some inexplicable reason, was flooding through his body. He felt taller all of a sudden, just a little bit. He could smell blood on the air. He turned his head to the other side, straining his ears for any sort of sound, not knowing why he was. That movement caused his hair to brush against his cheek, it wasn't greasy, it was silky, and felt thicker than normal. His hand lifted in front of him, but he couldn't even see his fingers.**

 **There was a second flash of light, this time red. Once again the cages were illuminated. Inside the one he was facing, was a teenage boy, probably the age of fourteen, who was tall, had black, messy hair, and glasses that flashed in the light. With a jolt of recognition Severus called out,**

 **"James!" That didn't sound like his voice, no, not at all. Potter turned to look at him, he disappeared into the darkness when the red light died.**

 **"Peter!" He called back. "Mate, where in the Name of Merlin are we?" Peter? What kind of dream was he having, and why was it so detailed? He never remembered being able to smell things in his dreams before, or feel things, like the cold bars he had suddenly wrapped his fingers around.**

 **"I dunno, James." He called back.**

 **He was pushing on the inside of the bars. A feeling of immense power coursed through his arms, and with the almighty sound of bending metal, he wrenched the bars apart. He took a half step back, and made a spectacular leap, landing on the top of the cage the housed Potter. Another flash of light, this time pink, gave him opportunity to scale down the side, ripping two bars out of their positions, and threw them into the cavernous depth of the pit below them, the clanging sound that would've come from them hitting the bottom never came. In the next flash of light, this one an eerie purple, Severus could see Potter's shocked face.**

 **"How did you do that?" Was Potter's only reaction. Severus did not reply.**

 **"We need to find a way out of here as fast as possible." Severus gasped, but it was not audible at all, or at least he thought it wasn't. "James, did you hear that?"**

 **"Hear what?" Potter replied.**

 **"Oh, Merlin..."** _ **Snape, you have to help us**_ **. It was like it was Severus's own thought, but he knew it wasn't, suddenly, he understood that this wasn't a dream, he was inside Pettigrew's thoughts, inside his mind.** _ **I'm trying to**_ **. He thought, and, for some reason, Severus knew that Pettigrew had heard him, then his eyes flew open, and he was being jostled awake by Lupin and Black.**


	10. 10: Another Kidnapping, Another Team up

**Chapter Ten**

 **Another kidnapping, Another team up**

 **Severus's Point of view**

 **"How did you two get in here?" Severus asked, exasperatedly.**

 **"Through the portrait hole." Black answered as though that was the most obvious ting in the world. "**

 **"But how..."**

 **"There's no time for that." Lupin said, agitated.**

 **"We found Pretend Peter's journal earlier today..."**

 **"Earlier? How early do you two get up?" Severus interrupted. Black continued as though he hadn't heard him.**

 **"Conveniently enough, he's a forgetful guy, and wrote directions on how to get to the skin walker temple, James and Peter could be there, and, if not, well... there's got to be some information there, right?" He said the last part hopefully.**

 **"And," Severus grunted, "why are you telling me this..." Realization slowly set itself upon him. "There is absolutely no way you are getting me to go there with you. Nothing you can say is going to get me to go, absolutely nothing."**

 **"Well, we could just bring Pretend James in here and see what happens." Black taunted, snidely.**

 **"When are we leaving?" Severus asked immediately, getting a wicked sort of grin from Black. Some scarlet light flashed in Black's eyes, and his face seemed to melt slowly away, leaving behind the rotting skull of a deer, and a strong smell of blood and rotting meat. Severus blinked, and it was like it had never happened. Black raised his eyebrow at him.**

 **"What's with you, " Lupin demanded, "you look like you saw a demon." He added in a softer tone, as though concerned.**

 **"N-nothing." Severus managed to choke out, "trick of the light I suppose." Sure, that was a trick of the light, just like lumos was an optical illusion.**

 **"Well, get dressed and meet us by the Forbidden Forest." Lupin said, and the two of them walked out of Severus's dormitories. He did indeed get dressed, but he had no intention of meeting them anywhere, especially not anywhere that would give them the advantage, like the Forbidden Forest.**

 **An idea, however, was beginning to form in his mind, bits and pieces of information and movements, clotting together and becoming a single entity. He allowed himself a grin as he straightened his tie. It was perfect, and almost bound to work, but first he needed to get into their dormitories, and learn how they were able to copy Black and Lupin's behavior so easily. He grabbed his wand, and slunk down the halls, paying no mind to the early hours. It took him a while to find his way to it, but there it was, the Gryffindor common room. He knew it was, because a girl clad in Gryffindor robes stepped out from behind it, followed closely by, Severus's heart leaped, Lily Evens. What could they be doing up so early? He'd all but forgotten about his mission, and whipped behind a corner. Lily and her friend were acting similar to the way he was, as though they could do without being seen, although they'd come to a standstill.**

 **"Why are we doing this again?" Lily's friend asked quietly.**

 **"Potter and Peter are acting really strangely, not to mention suspiciously... they were up at four this morning whispering to each-other in a corner, I want to know what their planning, 'cause if they aren't cluing Lupin in on it, it's dangerous."**

 **"What were** _ **you**_ **doing up at four in the morning?" Her friend challenged.**

 **"I fell asleep in the common room, Chrysanthemum, and a cold draft from the window woke me up. Aside from that, Lupin and Black don't seem to know what's going on either... even Severus is poking around at it, there's got to be something bad going on." Lily replied.**

 **"How do you know Snape is poking around at it?" Chrysanthemum giggled.**

 **"I came across him in the library. I overheard him talking to Lupin and Black about them, but I didn't catch anything specific, but what I did hear scared me."**

 **"What'd you pick up?"**

 **"They were whispering but I caught the words demon, dangerous, blood magic, and summoning." Severus felt himself cringe. They'd been talking about what the Skinwalkers might be doing with the humans they captured; one of the ideas that came up was that they were using their blood in dark summoning rituals or sacrificial rituals... but he could see how someone would mistake the meaning easily if they only heard bits of it.**

 **"And that's another thing, isn't it?" Chrysanthemum said thoughtfully.**

 **"What is?" Lily asked curiously.**

 **"That Potter didn't clue Black in, I thought they were pretty much inseparable.**

 **"I thought that was strange too." Lily conceded. "They do everything together from what I've seen, what could've driven a wedge between them?" Suddenly, there was a faint white glow that appeared around Lily and her friend. Severus blinked and shook his head, and the lights had disappeared, what was going on with him.**

 **Lily's point of view**

 **"Maybe it was Pettigrew?" Chrysanthemum offered.**

 **"Peter?" Lily asked, confused. "What'd you mean, Peter? How could he have done it?"**

 **"Well, maybe when Pettigrew came back, they found out he learned or got demon magic somehow, then... just hear me out yeah, Potter takes Pettigrew's side and expects Black to take their side too, but he doesn't. Then, Potter wants demon magic too, so Pettigrew takes him to the demons at night or something and Potter gets demon magic, and in return they sacrifice people to them..."**

 **"Like a cult?" Lily interrupted her, skeptical. "I don't think Potter or Peter would get involved with something like that."**

 **"Power corrupts people." Chrysanthemum pushed on. "That would explain why his grades picked up, wouldn't it?"**

 **"You know what... there could be another reason his grades picked up... it's this crazy piece of magic, I'm sure Lupin could pull it off."**

 **"Yeah, what's that?" Chrysanthemum asked, excitedly.**

 **"Studying." Lily answered. Chrysanthemum pouted. Someone from around the corner snorted. Fear coursed through Lily's body. "Who's there?" She demanded.**

 **"Erm... hi, Lily." He came around into view; it was Severus. Relief took the place of the fear.**

 **"Oh, thank Merlin it's you Severus." She said. Severus suddenly looked quite pleased with himself, Lily knew why.**

 **"Why were you listening to us?" Chrysanthemum demanded.**

 **"I, erm, wanted to..." Severus started quietly.**

 **"Well, spit it out!"**

 **"Come off it, Chrysanthemum." Lily said crossly. "He's got enough trouble with out you treating him badly too." She paused, thinking. "What were you doing here, though?" She asked kindly.**

 **"Well, see, Potter and Black stole something from me, and I was trying to get it back."**

 **"Wh..." Lily stomped on Chrysanthemum's foot to stop her question.**

 **"We'll let you in."**

 **"We will?" Chrysanthemum asked incredulously.**

 **"You will?" Severus asked at the same time, though in a very different tone.**

 **Severus's point of view**

 **"Why not, you** _ **are**_ **trying to get something of yours back aren't you?" She challenged.**

 **"Of course I am." He said automatically. Lying to Lily Evens physically hurt, but he didn't let it show. "There's something else, though." He ignored Chrysanthemum's 'Ha!' of victory. "They've been trying to help me, Lupin and..." He shuttered slightly to add effect, "Black, but now I'm pretty sure they need my help with something."**

 **"What?" The blonde asked.**

 **"I'm not telling you." He snarled, a little more aggressively than he'd meant to.**

 **"Fine," she shot back, "I'm going back up to the dormitories, Lily, I didn't even want to be here in the first place." She turned and walked straight into Gryffindor tower, slamming the portrait of the fat lady closed, who complained loudly.**

 **"Sorry, Lily." He muttered.**

 **"Don't worry about it, Sev." She said nonchalantly. "Chrysanthemum's pretty emotional anyhow, she was going to storm off on me at some point." She frowned slightly. "So why'd you really want to get into Gryffindor tower?" Severus cringed slightly.**

 **"Well, I wasn't exactly lying about that second part." He muttered. He could feel himself going slightly red and inwardly cursed the blush.**

 **"Yeah?" She asked curiously. "What were you helping them with?"**

 **"Well, we were... erm... I dunno if they'd like me telling you."**

 **"Aw..." She said suddenly. "Are you guys all buddies now?"**

 **"No." Severus said, revolted. A smile was creeping across Lily's face.**

 **"So why aren't you telling me what I want to know?"**

 **"I just... er..."**

 **"Come on, Sev, you can tell me." She said invitingly.**

 **"Peter and Potter were kidnapped and replaced with a type of demon called Skinwalkers, and Peter was nice to me so I wanted to get him back, and I guess not even Potter deserves that. I was helping Black and Lupin try to find them, but I'm pretty sure they've been replaced now too, and I think the demons are trying to take over the school for some reason, I have no idea what to do, and I'm scared that they're going to come after me next, and I can't find anything on how to fight Skinwalkers effectively, so if they come after me I'm a goner." He'd just blurted it out. He didn't realize that he was so scared until he started talking, and now, he didn't really want to stop. "Nobody here knows what's going on anymore and Peter was almost starting to be my friend, and you're the only thing even close to a friend I've ever had and I want to make sure Peter's okay, and the demons are multiplying, and they're learning how to act like the people they replace... I mean, if they can do that, who's to say they haven't started replacing the professors yet? Oh, Merlin, Lily, I'm terrified." Lily had stayed quiet through Severus's rant and waited, like she was going to see if Severus had more to say, before talking herself.**

 **"Sev, why don't I help you? You're right, not even Potter and Black deserve to be kidnapped by demons, and poor Peter has to go through it twice... I say we save them, and don't worry, we'll figure out a way to figure out who's all been replaced, and we can find them too." She smiled warmly at him, and he felt as though his stomach had just done a backflip.**

 **"Thanks, Lily." He said, breathlessly. "I... I needed that."**

 **"Sure, Sev." She said. "Well, I think I know someone who can help us, but you can't tell anyone you've met her."**

 **"Erm... okay." Severus agreed a little skeptically, wondering just who on earth she could be talking about.**


	11. 11: Clairvoyant Psychokinesis

**Severus's Point of view**

 **He followed Lily into the library.**

 **"What are we doing here, exactly?" He asked in the nicest way possible.**

 **"Just trust me." She said brightly. She was running her hand over the top of a bookshelf. Then she smiled. "Stand back." She said. Severus took a hesitant step backward. Lily jumped back away from the bookshelf, just as it started to pull away from the wall, and slide to the side. It revealed a long, dark, damp passageway, that slanted slightly. Severus felt Lily's hand close around his wrist, and then she was pulling him down through the passageway. At the end of the hall were two, dull torches on either side of a door so covered in dust, it was hard to tell the difference between it and the stone wall.**

 **Lily walked right up to the door, tugging Severus along with her. She whispered something in another language, an exotic and beautiful sounding word, but he wasn't sure what language it was. The door creaked open slightly, and she pried it open the rest of the way. He followed her in, and his eyes widened as he looked around and saw that he was in another library, a massive one, that must've been magically enlarged, because the shelves were at least ten feet tall, and the passage way wasn't steep or that long. It was like someone had gutted the room, it had a dome shaped floor, with steep stair leading from dozens of doorways to the point where the ground leveled out. There were dozens of rows of shelves, each with about two dozen shelves, each shelf must've been able to hold a thousand books. Hundreds of people all in different colored cloaks were either reading, getting books from shelves, walking to and from the entrances, or sitting at a desk, scribbling away on parchment, with books open next to them.**

 **"Welcome to the Archives, Sev." Lily declared happily. "This is one of my favorite places to be."**

 **"I see why." Severus said honestly. He'd never seen so many books in his life before.**

 **"This is where I first met her."**

 **"Er... you still haven't told me who she is." Severus said cautiously.**

 **"Come on, she practically lives down here, and she's alway in the same spot... she's the smartest person I know, and she'll be able to help." Lily said excitedly.**

 **She took something from her book bag.**

 **"Here." She said, shoving it at him. It was a long, silky black cloak, bundled up tightly and neatly, and a matching hair ribbon.**

 **"Why on Earth would I need these?" He asked.**

 **"They'll know you don't belong here if you don't wear them." She answered. "Put the cloak on, and I'll put your hair up... they're less likely to bother a black cloak, they're usually mean and strong."**

 **"But..." His argument was lost when Lily grabbed the hair ribbon back from him, and her fingers lightly brushed against his, silencing the words at the tip of his tongue.**

 **Lily stepped behind him, and he could feel her messing with his hair, and was suddenly very self conscious about how greasy it was. After a second she stepped in front of him again, and he put the cloak on. She also put her hair up, in a Shimada type hairstyle with a long, grey ribbon, remarkably fast, and wrapped a grey colored cloak around her shoulders. She grabbed his wrist again and tugged him down the stairs.**

 **"Oi, Lily, I'm coming." Severus said.**

 **"Okay, hurry, then." She said, "and keep your head down, don't make eye contact with anyone, but try not to look suspicious."**

 **"Okay, then..." Severus did as he was told, and stuck close to Lily.**

 **After a while, the books on the shelves became scrolls, very dusty ones at that. They were in all sorts of languages, as far as Severus could see, almost none of them were in English, a lot of them looked Japanese or Chinese, and some where written in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Lily stopped walking, and so did he. She nudged him, and he looked up, keeping his expression blank and bored, though he was nervous and very excited. She'd led him to a girl with mocha colored skin, long dark brown hair, and a bright pink flower tucked behind her ear. She was wearing a cloak that matched the shade of the flower perfectly, her hair was blocking her face from view.**

 **"Leilani, this is Severus Snape, he's a friend of mine. Severus, this is Leilani Kahananui, you've probably heard of her by the name of Siren." Lily said brightly. Severus felt his mask-like expression slip, and his jaw dropped.**

 **Leilani did not seem to notice.**

 **"Is there something I can help you with, young Severus?" She looked up, and Severus knew why she hadn't noticed his odd reaction, there looked to be a white film covering her eyes; she was blind.**

 **"We both need help." Lily answered for him. "A, er... ally of ours, Peter Pettigrew, has been kidnapped by skinwalkers, and we need to get him back."**

 **"Peter Pettigrew?" Leilani repeated, the quill she'd been holding, falling from her hand, but she reached out and caught it with nimble fingers, something Severus would not have been able to do if he could see.**

 **"Yes, do you know him... that would explain why his grades picked up, he's been learning from you." Lily smiled.**

 **"Learning from me... no, no, I'd be honored if he were to teach me some of what he knows... He is in danger, you say? No time for questions right now." She said, holding up her hand, just a Severus had opened his mouth to ask how she knew Pettigrew and why someone like her would want to learn from him. He blinked in shock, but Lily didn't seem concerned or surprised in the least bit. "Severus, are you aware of your spirit ability?" She asked suddenly.**

 **"I, er... my what?" He raised his eyebrow.**

 **"Ah, my boy, Lily has not told you... perhaps she didn't not sense the signs."**

 **"Signs?" Lily repeated, as though she did not know what Leilani was talking about.**

 **"He is a clairvoyant psychic." She said.**

 **"Is he?" Lily looked at Severus as though impressed, and Severus felt his cheeks grow hot.**

 **"Now tell me, Severus," Leilani began, "exactly what has happened to your... uh... ally." Severus launched into the story about how he figured out Pettigrew had gotten replaced, and how he'd teamed up with Lupin and Black to try to help him, and how he was sure they were replaced now too.**

 **"I need you to do something." Leilani said after Severus had finished.**

 **"Yeah?" Severus said uncertainly.**

 **"I need you to take a sleeping potion, and when you do focus on nothing but Remus Lupin."**

 **"Okay, I... wait, what?" Severus was confused.**

 **"Focus on Remus Lupin... and when you fall asleep, it will be like you have become him... but you will not be able to control his body." She elucidated. That was exactly what had happened with him and Pettigrew.**

 **"When this happens," she continued, "Mr. Lupin will fall asleep. You will have free access to his thoughts until he wakes up... try to find out what happened after they left you that night.**

 **"But how can we be sure it will work, and how will I know how to access his thoughts?" Severus asked.**

 **"I will be helping you and guiding you from here. I will open your third eye chakra for you, having you open it yourself in such a short space of time would be dangerous. All you have to do is focus on him." She said softly.**

 **"Okay." Severus agreed to the plan, getting a bad feeling in his chest when he did so.**

 **Remus's Point of view**

 **In a way it wasn't the worst situation he'd been in, he was relatively comfortable in the cage in all honesty, but in another way, it was the worst position he'd ever been in, in his life, because he was sure there was no way they were going to get out of the cage before they got to where ever the Skinwalkers were taking them, and no way they could break out once they were there. They were in the back of some sort of cart, and had been for almost an entire twenty-four hours. Their wands had been taken, so getting out was not going to happen. The cart was traveling so fast that there was no way it wasn't enchanted in some way. Remus's eyelids began to grow heavy, he hadn't been even the least bit tired until now. His eyes closed, and it was like a film that had been waiting to play switched on. He and Sirius were walking back to the dormitories from the library where they'd been working with Snape. He heard a bump sound and turned to face it, but nothing was there. Sirius had heard it too, at least it seemed like he did. He'd turned to look at the exact spot Remus had.**

 **He began sniffing at the air, calling on his wolf senses, straining his ears for any sort of sound, other than Sirius, who was also sniffing. The strong smell of rotting meat filled the air, making both Remus and Sirius start choking and coughing over the noxious odor. It was gone again, leaving not even the smallest trace of anything besides the smell of the damp stone of the Hogwarts halls, and the burning smell of the torches, which were about to be put out when curfew rolled around. The strangest thing about the smell was that, like most smells, it hadn't faded into being, and then faded back out, it was immediate, suddenly there, and then gone just as quickly. Remus had never experienced anything like it before, and, by the look on his face, neither had Sirius. They continued walking, but Remus was very uneasy. He kept glancing over his shoulder, and sniffing the air, trying to get some hint of something, just to make sure they weren't being followed.**

 **A second bump sound made them both stop in their tracks again. They each jumped into a dueling stance, back to back, drawing their wands. Remus was scanning his half of the hall, looking for any sign of what would be making those sounds. Nothing moved, except for the fire dancing on the torches and the shadows snaking up the walls. He was trying to pick up any smell again, but the only thing he could get was Sirius.**

 **"Sirius," he whispered, "Do you see anything?"**

 **"No." He whispered back. "Nothing down here, can't smell anything either."**

 **"Neither can I." Remus said.**

 **"This is too freaky." Sirius muttered.**

 **"Yeah, I know, I think we're okay for now though." Remus replied in a low voice.**

 **"Yeah." Sirius agreed. Neither of them moved from their defensive position.**

 **"We should probably get moving." He murmured. He felt Sirius nod behind him, and they both straightened, Remus did not put his wand away. They continued walking, though a bit faster than normal, Remus noted. He hadn't realized it at the time, but he wanted out of there, as fast as possible.**

 **Then, there was a third sound, this time a sort of high-pitched whining sound, that made Remus want to yell out in pain. He covered his ears, but could still hear the noise easily. To his left Sirius had his hands clamped over his ears too, whimpering like a scared or wounded dog. Remus was sure this sound would not be audible to normal humans. Sirius seemed to have flat out panicked and shot down the hall, Remus taking off right behind him, without a second's hesitation. The sound stopped pretty suddenly, but they didn't stop running, and Remus did not remove his hands from his ears. They stopped running only when they'd made it to Gryffindor Common Room and were right in front of the portrait. Gasping for breath, Remus said the password(Dracaena), and Sirius scampered in like a frightened puppy, though he wasn't covering his ears anymore. Remus climbed in quickly, though, in a slightly more dignified way.**

 **Everyone in the common room turned to look at them, as Remus slammed the portrait hole closed behind him, panting from the effort of running that far that fast. Some of the students were whispering to each other, saying things like;**

 **"What could have the great Sirius Black that freaked out?" Remus had a pounding headache, but for some reason, Sirius looked much worse. A wolf's ears were stronger than a dog's so why was Sirius effected worse. He was staring at the ground, his hair covering his face, and his hands clamped so tightly over his ears that his knuckles were turning the slightest bit white.**

 **"Sirius, mate, what's up?" Remus muttered. "The sound wasn't** _ **that**_ **bad even for me." Sirius only shook his head and shuttered a bit. Then he looked up at Remus. His eyes were wide, and his pupils were the slightest bit dilated.**

 **"Didn't you see it?" He whispered, sounding like he'd like to be hiding under a table with his tail in between his legs and his paws over his eyes.**

 **"See what?" Remus responded quietly.**

 **"The body." Sirius whispered, his widening even farther. "The dead body."**

 **"What?" Remus hadn't seen anything in the hall, or smelled anything for that matter.**

 **"You didn't smell all that blood? You didn't see it? Oh, Merlin, didn't you hear that sound?" Sirius voice was starting to rise ever so slightly.**

 **"I heard the sound, it was like a dog whistle." Remus quieted his even more in contrast, to remind Sirius to keep his voice down.**

 **"Not that, not that. No, not that, the screaming all that screaming. Didn't you hear them, well, didn't you?" Sirius suddenly sounded quite deranged.**

 **"I... no, what?" Remus was growing worried for Sirius's sanity.**

 **"You, you didn't, but why, then why did I, you really didn't hear them?" Sirius's mouth fell open. Remus glanced nervously around the room. Someone in the corner of the room caught his eye. 'Peter' and 'James' were looking at them, darkly.**

 **"Let's talk about this somewhere else, like the dormitories." Remus muttered.**

 **"Yeah, erm... alright, yeah." Sirius looked like he had no idea of what to do with himself. They both went up into the dormitories, and, the second Remus closed the door, Sirius yelled;**

 **"No, oh, Merlin no, no, look there it is, you see it right, tell me you see that... Remus come on." He started shaking Remus by the shoulders.**

 **"Sirius, come off it, yeah?" Remus growled. He turned to look where Sirius had been looking, there was nothing there. Sirius's knees buckled, and he fell to his side, holding the sides of his head, murmuring;**

 **"No, oh no, oh no, oh go away, oh please go away." There was a small trickle of blood coming from Sirius's left ear, no hallucination could do that, Sirius was definitely hearing and seeing something Remus couldn't.**

 **Sirius sat bolt up-right, and dropped his hands away from his ears.**

 **"Oh, no." He moaned again. He scrambled to his feet. "Remus, Remus, mate, they're coming to get us, we have to go, we have to go now." He made to run out of the room, but he stopped dead in his tracks, making a funny sort of motion like he'd been caught around the middle. Remus might have laughed if the situation hadn't been so serious. "They're already here, they're right outside the door, oh, Merlin." He turned his attention to someone Remus could not see. "How'd they get in here, do they know?" He paused, as though listening to someone answer his question. "Oh, man, no, no, Remus, mate, we've cornered ourselves."**

 **"I'm sorry, what?" Remus asked, genuinely confused.**

 **The door to the dormitory opened slowly, and Sirius jumped back from it, like he'd received a stinging hex. The two impostors were standing there, with worried expressions on their faces.**

 **"Are you two okay, we thought we heard something?" The fake Peter asked. The rotting smell had followed them in.**

 **"No." Sirius moaned, "No, you've let them in, you stupid demons you've let them in."**

 **"What?" The Peter impostor asked.**

 **"What's going on, Sirius?" James's impersonator asked.**

 **Remus's eyes fluttered open. Something had woken him up, and he realized what it was at once. Sirius had turned into a dog and was howling.**

 **"Will you knock that off?" Remus asked. Sirius cut off abruptly and glared at him, then his right ear perked up, as though he'd heard a familiar voice call his name. He howled again. "What in the wizarding world do you think you're doing?" Remus asked him. Sirius didn't even acknowledge that he'd heard him and just continued howling, then barking. After a moment, he transformed back into a human.**

 **"Took you long enough." He said with a grin, looking at the steel bars around them.**

 **"Who are you talking to?" Remus asked.**


	12. 12: The Most Secret World

**Chapter Twelve**

 **The Most Secret World (Hito's Fukiya, Wizards are So Clueless)**

 **Lily's point of view**

 **She'd taken Severus down to see her friend Leilani, learned Severus was psychic, and then heard him recount a vision about Black and Lupin, in which they learned Black had gone mad. At least, from what Severus said, Lily thought he'd gone mad, but Leilani didn't agree. She was meditating at the moment, and Lily knew better than to interrupt, Severus seemed to pick up on this, because he'd resumed his expression that, oddly enough, was very fitting of a black cloak. Blank, mysterious, bored, but in an intimidating way, the look on his face made it clear that he thought was superior to everyone else, and everyone down here who wore that expression was a superior warrior or was the lord or high ranking member of some clan. Severus, as far as Lily knew, didn't know anything about the people of the Archives, not that she did, but he was blending in perfectly, he was good at absorbing information that wasn't directly presented to him, and was a brilliant actor, he'd make a bloody good spy, she only hoped he'd be on their side.**

 **She'd actually chosen to give that cloak to him, because people were less likely to approach him and ask for help with something, but, now that she saw his skill in adapting to situations, she wasn't worried about that at all. He'd probably be able to answer the question without giving any kind of information, something Leilani was very good at. Her theory was tested when a black cloak girl, looking about nine, came up to Severus. The dress she wore, as well as her hair, was the same color as her cloak, darker than midnight, and you almost couldn't tell the difference between them. You couldn't see her feet, but her dress didn't seem to drag on the floor, as if she'd been levitating slightly. Severus turned to look at her, his eyes taking in her appearance, with a slight amount of scrutiny, very characteristic of a black cloak. Only one of the girl's eyes was visible and it looked midnight blue, it was probably a lighter color than that, but her hood cast a shadow over her face, so it was hard to tell.**

 **"Sir," She began, "I wanted to ask if you would share your knowledge of eclipse magic with me." Lily felt herself tense up. If a girl that age knew about eclipse magic, it was probably common knowledge to the people here, and it would look very suspicious if Severus, who was fourteen, did not know anything about it. Severus closed his eyes, frowned slightly, and shook his head.**

 **"Someone your age should not be asking about magic of that nature." He said quietly. Lily blinked in surprise. He sounded as though he was versed on the subject, but he hadn't really said a word about it, he was a good liar, so good, he could probably lie to Dumbledore, and that was almost scary.**

 **"Sir?" The girl inquired. Severus shook his head again.**

 **"Do not waste your time pursuing that subject." He opened his eyes again, looking as though he could see into the girl's soul, which, seeing as he was a psychic, he probably could. The girl suddenly looked confused.**

 **"Waste my time?" She asked, unbelievingly. "It's the strongest of dark magic, isn't it?" Severus scowled.**

 **"Not exactly, but knowing that you seek the strongest dark magic troubles me." Severus was doing a hell of a good job acting like a wise, strong person, and even Lily almost believed he knew what he was talking about. She would've if she didn't actually know Severus.**

 **"Why is that, sir?" The girl asked, her one visible eye had widened and she seemed to think she'd picked out someone even smarter than she'd originally thought.**

 **"Darkness is a consuming power... only too often I've seen people who had great potential swallowed by the evil force, becoming something almost less than human. You cannot dance on the edge of darkness, nor can you control it... nobody can." The girl's jaw dropped slightly.**

 **"But... sir, you are a black cloak as well, surely you must use shadow magic."**

 **"Ah," He said, his eyes lighting up slightly. He suddenly reminded Lily of Dumbledore, and now she was really freaked out. "Shadow magic is not necessarily dark." He continued. Lily knew what he was getting at. Shadow magic was theoretical in the wizarding world, but for these people, whoever they were, it was real.**

 **The theory was that it was a take on dark magic that didn't exactly hurt people. Blood magic, sacrifice magic, and rituals were excluded from this category, but it was mainly curses, and self aiding charms, making it almost dark. In a way he was contradicting his earlier statement about dancing on the edge of darkness, while building it at the same time, by saying he didn't use dark magic. The girl seemed to Find this very impressive. "What do you propose I study instead, sir?" She asked excitedly. Severus closed his eyes again, then smiled ever so slightly, opening them again.**

 **"I believe you should speak to Peter Pettigrew and Scorpion Flametail." He answered softly. This sentence shocked Lily. Why was he bringing up Peter and Flametail? This seemed to make perfect sense to the girl, however, who looked even more impressed.**

 **"Do you know them?" She asked, awed.**

 **"We've met." He said in a slightly false sounding offhanded tone. Here, he was saying the truth in a way that it sounded like he was trying to be humble. That was what impressed Lily the most out of his entire long lie.**

 **"Wow." The girl breathed. "Could you maybe... maybe ask them to, uh, talk to me, sir?"**

 **"If you tell me your name, I'm sure they'd be delighted." He replied. She looked positively overjoyed.**

 **"My name is Melissa Abigail, I'm actually the child of muggles... but could you leave that part out?"**

 **"If you want, but I'm sure it would make no difference to them." He said almost kindly.**

 **"Thank you, sir." She turned and floated away, returning a few scrolls to a shelf, looking thoroughly disgusted with them. Severus turned to Lily, looking relieved.**

 **"How was that?" He asked quietly. Lily blinked, then said;**

 **"Are you sure you're not from around here... I almost believed you knew what you were talking about." She muttered in response. Severus's eyes lit up.**

 **"Thanks." He whispered back. Then, he straightened his posture, and resumed his 'holier than thou' expression.**

 **Leilani opened her eyes, frowning.**

 **"From what I heard your original assessment was correct, however, I am certain that your friend, or... ally, Black has not gone mad. He is what you wizards call an Animagus, correct?"**

 **"Erm... as far as I know." Severus answered, unsure of why she'd said 'you wizards'. She nodded.**

 **"That means he would have many canine qualities, am I right in assuming as much?"**

 **"I believe so." He replied.**

 **"Then he has not gone mad, he was merely communicating with spirits."**

 **"I'm sorry, what?"**

 **"Domestic canines have the ability to see and hear spirits that are silent and invisible to most humans, though, only when they choose to present themselves to them, but they can always sense the spirit's presence." She offered in explanation. "Domesticated feline also have this skill, although it is less prominent. Your ally was speaking to a spirit who did not choose to stay behind in our world as a ghost. He was speaking to someone who descended from the spirit realm temporarily, the majority of humans are incapable of making contact with them, though it appears his canine side makes him an exception to this rule."**

 **Peter's point of view**

 **He was pacing in the cage the two of them were in, apparently annoying James.**

 **"Would you knock that off?" James asked, though, admittedly, less aggressively than he usually would have. Peter could only suppose it was because he was still feeling guilty about not believing him about the demon. Peter had forgiven him a long time ago, but he couldn't really explain that to James, not right now.**

 **"Sure." He said. He focused his chakra to the soles of his feet and jumped, preforming a half backflip so his feet touched the top of the cage, where they stuck. He resumed his pacing on the ceiling, knowing James would be too shocked to say anything about his continued and repetitive movements.**

 **The smell of rotting meat came on them suddenly. A Skinwalker's ungodly face appeared outside of the cage's bars. Two pieces of bread where pushed through the small openings, as well as a small canteen of water. Peter jumped down, practically pouncing on them, preforming a lightning fast spell to ensure they were safe to eat, then passed them both to James.**

 **"What about you?" James asked, taking one of them.**

 **"I'm not hungry." Peter stated.**

 **"Liar." James said with humor behind his voice.**

 **"I'm not." Peter said, stubbornly.**

 **"At least drink some water." James said, poking Peter with the cantine. Peter snatched it away from him moodily, took a sip, replaced the lid, and shoved it back at him.**

 **"There, you happy now?" Peter demanded. He knew James was only trying to help him, but that was making Peter more frustrated. He was tired of everyone treating him like a weak, helpless child, because he wasn't anymore. He was a ninja after all, he didn't need to be babied.**

 **"No." James scowled, but he didn't pressure Peter to eat or drink anymore.**

 **In truth, Peter was wondering why the Skinwalkers were bothering to keep the prisoners alive in the first place. He knew they were herbivores, so they weren't going to eat them, but why did they not just let them starve or die of dehydration. There had to be a reason they were being left alive, and Peter wanted to know. He sighed, and sat on the floor of the suspended cage, clearing his mind, focusing his thoughts on Severus Snape, so that if Snape tried to communicate with him again, he could. When Peter told James that Snape, Remus, and Sirius were actually working together to try and save them, James laughed for at least two minutes straight. It took a while to convince him it was true, but he finally did.**

 **Remus's Point of view**

 **His whole body was aching, and he felt like he was going to throw up. A migraine had set in, and the slightest sound made his head feel like it was going to split open. Sirius was sitting in the corner of the cage, having a whispered conversation with an invisible woman he'd called Angelica. Remus was worried that Sirius had gone mad, but he was also worried about the way his body was acting. Whenever it did that, it was on the day of the full moon, what if he ended up transforming while he and Sirius were locked in the cart together? Just as he was beginning to think about that, his muscles began to retract, painfully, stretching, tearing, rebuilding themselves elsewhere. He called out, instinctively curling into something equivalent to a fetal position.**

 **"Sirius," Remus gasped through his pain. "Sirius, the moon." Sirius shot a frightened glance out at the sky, before transforming into a dog. A prickling sensation spread over his body, the brown fur was beginning to coat his body. His arms and legs were extending, bending in ways a human shouldn't be able to. His renewed yells of pain turned into the howl of a caged animal, and that was all he knew.**

 **Sirius's point of view**

 **Angelica was just telling him about the spirits of death that had followed the two demons into their dormitories, and about how only an elite warrior called a shinobi would be able to banish them, and they'd have to be a hell of a good shinobi to do so. He was about to ask her what a shinobi was exactly, when Remus called out in pain. He looked over at him, concerned.**

 **"Sirius," he gasped, "Sirius, the moon." It looked even more painful for him then usual, the transformation. Angelica, who was a tall girl with long, blonde hair and black eyes, leaned in toward him and whispered,**

 **"He could probably break through the bars in that form."** _ **He probably could do that**_ **. Sirius mentally agreed. As though Remus had read Sirius's mind, or had finally heard Angelica due to his wolven form, he began ripping and tearing at the cell bars. Sirius knew he was safe so long as he remained a dog. The cart stopped suddenly, Angelica being the only one who wasn't launched sideways into the bars. Remus rebounded quickly, immediately resuming his attempts at trying to destroy the now badly damaged cell. Finally, he succeeded in breaking three of the bars away from their positions, and immediately two skinwalkers appeared in front of their exit. Remus, who was obviously feeling threatened by them, attacked, lashing out with both his insanely large teeth and claws capable of slashing through steel.**

 **Severus's Point of View**

 **Leilani was trying to teach Severus how to use his "spirit ability" so he could use it to potentially track down Peter and Potter, and he was not doing well. So far, she was trying to have him read images on cards without looking at them, and the closest he's gotten was guessing at a crow when it was an eagle... but that was all he was doing was guessing, he wasn't getting images in his head or seeing colors or words in his "mind's eye" like she said he should be. The only thing strange he was picking up on was whispered words, he couldn't really tell what was being said, but every now and then, "Kuso", "Tawagoto", and "Merlin" were distinguishable from the hisses and mutterings that filled his head. He closed his eyes and shook his head, relaying to Leilani that he still wasn't seeing anything.**

 **"Try again, these things take a lot of time, it would be nothing short of miraculous if you could gain control of it in a day."**

 **Severus closed his eyes again, trying in vain to clear his mind, and enter Leilani's. Suddenly Potter floated into his thoughts, and his laughing voice rang out in his head, taunting him about not even being able to do something he was born to do, and as anger flooded through his veins it all disappeared, and the image of a great, black dragon, rearing and spreading it's massive wings drifted into his vision.**

 **"A... er... dragon, right? A massive black one." He said aloud, opening his eyes. Master Leilani blinked.**

 **"Yes."**

 **"How are you even seeing the images on the cards?" He asked exasperatedly. He told himself not to ask that question until he answered at least one perfectly correct, and not on a random guess.**

 **"I am using my chakra and chi. By focusing them to my hands and running my fingers over the images on the card, I can see them perfectly." Severus whistled.**

 **"That's a pretty useful spell to have."**

 **"It is." She agreed. "That's the only way I know how I look, I perform the eyes of the blind spell on any pictures taken of me, that's also how I read down here."**

 **"That explains it." Severus said, nodding, feeling satisfied with this knew pice of information. He turned his head to ask Lily what she thought of it, or if she already knew this before, but she wasn't there.**

 **"Lily's been gone quite a while." Leilani commented, following Severus's train of thought.**

 **"Yeah, are you sure she's okay?" He asked, concerned.**

 **"She'll be fine, she knows how to blend in with the shinobi here, and how to act intimidating."**

 **"Well I know she can do that... wait, hold on, what's a shinobi?"**

 **"A shinobi is an elite ninja warrior, capable of controlling both chakra and chi. We are normally kept secret from muggles and wizards, but they can be lenient on the wizard rule, since wizards are also capable of controlling chi and chakra, but do not have the training.**

 **"There's a world being kept from the wizarding world?" He asked, letting his jaw drop slightly.**

 **"Hito's fukiya, wizards are so clueless." she muttered.**

 **"Hey!"**

 **"I didn't say anything." She raised her eyebrow.**

 **"Yes you did, you just said wizards are clueless." He said defiantly, crossing his arms.**

 **"I thought it," She said slowly, "but I did not say it. I believe your third eye chakra has opened."**

 **"I thought you said it was dangerous to open it in such a short amount of time." Severus commented nervously.**

 **"It is, but I believe you've been accidently opening it, slowly over the span of your magical training." Severus nodded.**

 **"Hold on a minute." He said, suddenly getting an idea. "You said you knew of Peter Pettigrew, right?" She merely nodded. "You also said you'd be honored to learn from him, that means he's a shinobi too, right?"**

 **"I take back what I said about wizards being clueless." Was all she said, and Severus let himself have a grin. He heard footsteps, turned, and saw Lily's fiery red hair, then he gasped, and Master Leilani jumped to her feet.**


	13. 13: Code 13 66

**Chapter Thirteen**

 **Code 13 66**

 **Severus's point of view**

 **"What are you doing?" Leilani screeched, Severus thought her anger was very justified, though he wasn't sure how she would be able to see what he was seeing. A man in a midnight blue cloak was holding an unconscious Lily around the middle.**

 **"Does this belong to you Leilani?" The man sneered, he had an American accent. "I know how you always liked to keep your little pets, but bringing them down here is slightly illegal, isn't it?"**

 **"What do you mean pets?" Severus growled, aggressively, pulling a face that had once made Potter look like he was going to wet his pants. The man before him flinched slightly, but otherwise he did nothing to show he'd seen the expression on Severus's face.**

 **"Bringing wizards and witches down here... tut, tut. What would your sensei say?" The man pressed on.**

 **"I am not a wizard." Severus said in a quiet, but affronted voice.**

 **"Oh, really, what's your clan?" He challenged.**

 **"Are you that thick? If you took a look at who I was talking to, you'd know where I stand." He sneered, not knowing what he was talking about in the slightest.**

 **"You're a wandering ninja like Leilani?" He asked, his eyebrows raising slightly.**

 **"Did you figure it out by yourself or did someone help you?" He replied with a smirk. Now Severus felt like Potter, and that scared him slightly.**

 **"Either way, this witch was still down here, and I know she was seen speaking to you two, did you know she was a witch?" He asked.**

 **"She's not a witch." Severus said coldly.**

 **"That's right." Leilani agreed calmly, "She is a kunoichi. She just began her training."**

 **"Really now? And who might exactly be training her?" Leilani and Severus shared a glance.**

 **"Peter Pettigrew." Severus replied while Leilani nodded behind him.**

 **"I didn't know he was training students." The man began suspiciously.**

 **"Well, obviously you didn't or you wouldn't have attacked his favorite student, would you have?" When Severus said this, the man adopted an uneasy look.**

 **"Favorite? He's training more than one?" Is what the man chose to say.**

 **"Yes, three of them." Severus replied.**

 **"Right." He said, sarcastically, suddenly regaining his snide manor. "And who might they be?"**

 **"James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin." Severus said immediately. His lack of hesitation must've re-convinced the man, because he seemed nervous again.**

 **"He teaches me a bit too, swapping personal techniques and whatnot." Severus continued, hoping shinobis actually did that.**

 **"Peter Pettigrew is interested in some of your techniques?" The man looked more nervous still.**

 **"Yes." Severus replied smugly.**

 **"My protege is quite adept when it comes to mind magic, he's already opened is third eye chakra, and at his young age that is quite the accomplishment." Leilani claimed, proudly. The man looked impressed. He tapped Lily's forehead and she began to stir, then; she side stomped the man in the ribs, sending him into the nearest bookcase, which swayed ominously, but remained upright.**

 **"Creep." She growled at him, and Severus stifled a laugh. The man opened his mouth to reply, but a loud, blaring, high-pitched noise interrupted him. Lights began to flash around the top of the walls and the doors of the entrances, shimmered out of existence, leaving behind a blank expanse of stone walls. Tunnels and windows(Severus was sure they were actually some kind of portal)were covered by slabs of thick, glowing granite that was lowered down by chains on some kind of pulley system.**

 **"What?" The question escaped Severus's mouth before he could stop himself.**

 **"We're on lock down." The man replied, looking like he thought Severus ought to know that.**

 **"I know we're on lockdown." He snapped, hotly. "I want to know why."**

 **"Oh, right." He said. Severus willed himself into the man's mind. "Uh... I don't know. The last time they had to put the Archives on lockdown was..."**

 **"The war of shadows, I know." Severus interrupted, after extracting the information from his thoughts, and also learning the man's name was Jaakko Hatagana.**

 **"Uh... right, of course, sorry." Hatagana seemed very wrong footed, perhaps he thought he was dealing with someone smarter or more important than him. Severus allowed himself to smirk at this thought.**

 **"The Archives is on lockdown... all shinobis under yellow belt, please report to your sensei, supervising black belt, or one of the previous people you trust." A loud, calm female voice rang out around the room. "This is a code 13 66, I repeat; this is a code 13 66." Leilani gasped and Severus, feeling he should play along, grimaced, discretely taking a large blade offered to him by Leilani, and pretending to draw it out of a fold in his cloak. Lily came to stand by Severus, gripping his arm, as though she did not want to let go of him anytime soon. Severus's stomach immediately erupted into butterflies, but he wondered why Lily was so scared, maybe she knew what code 13 66 was. Yes, that would explain it, but what was code 13 66?**

 **"Dangerous creatures." Leilani explained in undertones. Severus gave the slightest of nods. "Telekinesis is hard to pull off, but if you can do Wingardium Leviosa, you can do telekinesis, you can figure it out, you're smart, just don't use your wand, it'll give you away." There was a scuttling noise, and about twelve dozen acramantulas, babies but still twice the size of a human head, rounded the corner, along with a scorpion at least three feet long.**

 **"Someone must've opened the gates to the Nether realms." Severus called, voicing what he heard in Jaakko's mind.**

 **"That's what I was thinking." Jaakko replied with a nod.**

 **James's point of view**

 **He and Peter had been forcibly separated again. They were in cages opposite to each other, but Peter was bound by at least a hundred chains connected to a glowing strap like a dog collar around his neck, so he wasn't breaking out anytime soon, and James could not break the bars. When he tried to break them, and realized how strong they were, he was awed at the power Peter must've had to tear through them like they were twigs. Peter was still refusing to eat, and James had the distinct impression that he was trying to starve himself to death. Two skinwalkers were standing on top of one of the cages, holding the limp body of a woman, shaking their heads. One of them pointed at James, and his cage was surrounded by a light blue aura. It disappeared and the lights flashed again, this time the same color as the aura that had engulfed him. He was starting to feel weak, very weak, and he fell forward into the cold steel floor, unable to hold himself up anymore. He heard Peter shout;**

 **"No!" Then darkness set itself upon him, and a strange warmth spread through his body. The feeling was so peaceful; he fell asleep, and was sure that when he woke up, this was all going to be a bad dream, and he'd find that it was time to go back to Hogwarts, because winter break had just ended.**

 **Peter's Point of view**

 **Most people had no idea what skinwalkers did with their victims, but Peter did. A friend of his had once been kidnapped by skinwalkers, and made it out alive. She told him everything. The skinwalkers were completely incapable of magic by themselves, so they used enchanted and cursed objects to drain power from ninjas, shinobis, and wizards and use it for themselves. The demons impersonating the two of them were using power from one of the poor blokes in the cages to be able to use magic to transform into them and command their wands, and it was the same story for every one in there. James and Peter had not been needed, but a woman they'd been using died, so now, one of them was, and they had chosen James. Peter tried to relax, tried to make contact with Snape. He needed to tell him what was happening. He wanted to know if he had found Leilani Kahananui yet, or at least someone who could help. The Siren knew more about mind magic than anyone else in the world, that was alive now, anyway, and she would be able to help, but Snape might never have been told about her.**

 **If he hadn't thought to ask Scorpion for help, there was a good chance that he didn't know the Siren existed, let alone where to find her. He closed his eyes, immediately a scene filled his mind. Leilani Kahananui was locked in a battle with a three foot long Scorpion, avoiding it's stinger with accuracy Peter would have trouble accomplishing, though he could see just fine. She had a pink ribbon tied over her eyes, why? Peter had no idea. Lily was waving her wand in complicated, swirling patterns muttering under her breath almost inaudibly, casting protective charms. Peter was throwing countless baby acramantulas against the wall, using telekinesis, squashing them with the force of the shove, but that didn't make sense. Peter didn't know how to use telekinesis, and he wasn't in the archives, he was locked in a cage next to James, who was suffering, and waiting for Snape. That was it.**

 **"Snape!" He whispered.**

 **"Peter?" The thought echoed through his mind as though it was his. He faltered in his bashing of spiders almost a fraction of a second.**

 **"So now it's first names?" Peter poked at him.**

 **"Sure, whatever. Where are you, do you know?" He was still squashing the arachnids, but with far less accuracy and power, probably because Peter was distracting him. Severus had really gotten a hold of his power.**

 **"I need you to give Scorpion Flametail this message:**

 **The trap was deployed; the rat is in the cat's mouth. She'll understand what it means, she'll get us help."**

 **"I..." He hesitated, smashing three at a time, but Peter was sure that was not the reason for his pause. "Are you okay?"**

 **"Yes, but we won't be for long, they've already started on James, and they're going to start on me soon, I need you to pass the message on as soon as possible."**

 **"Okay, Peter."**

 **"Thank you, Severus."**


	14. 14: Flametail's Secret

**Chapter Fourteen**

 **Flametail's Secret**

 **Scorpion's Point of view**

 **She stepped into the Archives and the blinding lights of the remanence of magical energy and discharge, the pleasantly intoxicating smell of excessive use of dark magic, the annoyingly vibrant and buoyant sound of an excessive use of light magic, and the mysterious, majestic, delightfully creepy song of psychic energy hit her like a slap to the face. Puzzled she used a location charm to lead her to her to the largest source of her favorite sound, the sound of panic, whispered voices of intense worry. Oddly enough, the song of Psychic energy grew along with panic's melody. She stopped, concealing herself in a shadow, when she saw Snape and Evens talking to Master Leilani, Scorpion had inconveniently 'forgot' to mention that she knew Siren's real name when she told Snape about her. She scowled to herself, wondering how they found her in a matter of days when when it took Scorpion a couple years to discover her true identity.**

 **"Is it really a good idea to tell Flametail, though?" She froze when Snape muttered her name.**

 **"C'mon, Severus. You, of all people, should know you can't be judged by stereotypes and by what you appear to be." Evens said sternly. Oh, so the mudblood thought Scorpion wanted or even needed her help, huh? That was laughable.**

 **"It's not that, I'm just saying, she wants Peter dead..."**

 **"So? You want Potter dead." Evens was obviously suppressing a grin.**

 **"Yes, Lily, well... kind of, but Flametail's just so dark."**

 **"And the pot called the kettle black." Scorpion said, just loudly enough for them to hear her, stepping out of the shadows, making all of them jump. She'd been silent enough to surprise Leilani, and she was proud of that.**

 **"You're even worse than I am, at least I don't," Scorpion felt something in the back of her mind, something that had made it past her mental barriers and occlumency shields, delve into her memories as Snape spoke, "use human children in blood rituals or to make horcruxes." He finished with a nasty sneer.**

 **Evens gasped and Scorpion almost did. Snape couldn't be what had gotten into her mind. No, it wasn't him. No pathetic wand-weiler could do that to the greatest of the Flametail clan. He must've found out another way, and that was almost as bad. If that kid could dig up information on her, anyone could, and that would not be tolerated. Immediately, she drew the Stygian Doragon, a blade of her own making, and pinned Snape against the nearest wall with her foot, the tip of her blade at the base of his throat, breaking his skin slightly, so that a tiny trickle of crimson was running down his neck. He gasped.**

 **"How did you know about that?" She hissed, and even she could tell that her voice had become high and cruel, like the voice of some female demon. Her left eye began to burn, and she backed off with a gasp of pain and horror as the burning intensified ten-fold instantly. Snape had accidently woken it up. She'd make him pay... if she survived that was.**

 **Severus's point of view**

 **One second, he'd been pinned against the wall, Flametail's breath surprisingly cold against his skin as she hissed the words, "How did you know about that?", the next second, she was gasping in pain, holding the left side of her face, which was now playing host to a glowing red ires.**

 **"What?" Lily seemed just as baffled as Severus felt.**

 **"You fool, Snape, what have you done?" She screeched, and with that she disappeared in a puff of smoke, or possibly shadows. Leilani frowned.**

 **"Curious." She mused.**

 **"And understatement of the year goes to..." Severus muttered, but so quietly that nobody heard him.**

 **"What's curious, Leilani?" Lily asked. If it was anyone besides her, Severus would've sneered at the stupidity of the question, it was completely obvious that what was 'curious' was Scorpion's behavior, but, since it was Lily, Severus found it cute.**

 **"Young Scorpion's actions... it seems as though it awakened sooner than I thought it did. Thank you, young Severus, for bringing this to the surface, we may be able to free Scorpion from her curse." She bowed slightly.**

 **"No problem." Severus said, as though he knew what she was talking about, but looked over to Lily, sure her expression of confusion was mirrored on his face.**

 **Remus's point of view**

 **It was like he'd woken up after a long nap. He was groggy and just wanted to go back to sleep, but wasn't tired. The smell of a forest filled his nostrils; the scent of pine, dirt, moss, flowers, and sap mixing into one pleasant aroma. Why would that be? He rolled over onto his back, then into a sitting position and promptly felt his cheeks burning as he moved his hands to cover up his indecency. He was naked and alone in the middle of a forest... oh Merlin. He'd transformed again last night and... suddenly he felt sick. What if Sirius hadn't turned into a dog in time? What if he attacked him? What if Sirius was lying in a half destroyed cart bleeding out to death or, and this was almost worse, what if Remus had passed his curse on to him, and Sirius was waking up somewhere else, wondering what happened and why he hurt so much? Remus's worries were dashed when a pair of robes hit him in the back of the head. He looked over his shoulder to see Sirius in jeans and a T-shirt, when he'd previously been wearing robes, and a smirk.**

 **"Put them on, Remus... No one wants to see that." Then he turned around, leaning against a tree. Remus slipped Sirius's robes over his head, still feeling exposed, but being grateful that Sirius was alive an not cursed to become a supernatural beast every full moon.**

 **"Thanks, Mate." Remus said, cuing Sirius to turn around.**

 **"Do you know where we are, Moony?"**

 **"No." He replied hesitantly.**

 **"We're in the forest of whispered secrets, it's a magic desert."**

 **"A magic desert?" Remus repeated, wondering how Sirius knew where they were.**

 **"That means there is no magic to draw from the environment, wands are useless here." He was staring directly up at the sky, his back still to Remus.**

 **"What does Angelica think we should do?" Remus asked.**

 **"Who?" Sirius asked.**

 **"Nevermind." That was the proof he needed to tell him that whoever or whatever that was, it wasn't Sirius, there was no way Sirius was going to forget that in one night. If what he said was true, though, there was nothing Remus could do. The only time he was physically strong was during the full moon, and besides, if it was a demon, what kind of spell would he use against something like that? He heard a twig snap and immediately looked over his shoulder. That had to be the real Sirius. Before he could say anything, the massive black dog bounded at the fake Sirius with a loud growl, and sunk his teeth into the back of his neck. Remus turned away. The sight of blood always made him feel queazy, and the sight of it flowing from the wound of one of his best friends was sure to be worse. Something tugged at his robes. He looked down, and let out a yell. There was, what first appeared to be, a rabbit chewing on his robes, but this rabbit had glowing yellow eyes and claws jutting out of its paws to put most cats to shame. It looked at him strangely for a second.**

 **"Remus, get away from that thing." That was Peter's voice. Sirius was standing to his left, but something was off. The way he was standing, for instance, with his feet in a fighting stance, but the rest of his body in a perfect straight posture. Then Remus looked to his eyes, which were deep blue, like Peter's.**

 **"Wha..."**

 **"Just back up slowly." He interrupted him. Remus did as he was told. He looked passed Sirius, then wished he hadn't. A short man with reddish skin and dark hair, lay behind him, where the impostor Sirius's corpse was likely to be, blood pouring from a wound in his neck.**

 **"This is the real Sirius," Sirius assured him, and now Remus was even more wary than before, "but I am currently, with his permission, possessing him."**

 **"Are you Peter?" Remus asked, trying to keep the monster rabbit and Sirius in his sight at once, which was extremely hard.**

 **"Yes."**

 **"Prove it." Sirius laughed.**

 **"Alright. You were reading the book,** **Ancient Spirits: A Guide to the Destruction of Demons** **when I stood up for Severus when James and Sirius were bullying him again." He said. Remus thought back. He didn't remember what book he was reading at the time, but that was so oddly specific, that he was sure he probably was reading that one, and he did remember reading that book after Peter got back to school, but why would Peter remember that specific detail?**

 **"Anyone could know that if they'd been watching us." Remus challenged. The monster rabbit continued to stare at Remus.**

 **"The last time the four of us went to prank someone, I got us caught when I tripped over the foot of one of the suits of armor." He said. That was definitely true, and that was almost a month before Christmas break, before that girl demon started staking out Peter, so nobody would've been watching them then.**

 **"Okay, it's you." Remus conceded. Sirius-Peter turned his attention to the monster rabbit. The two of them locked eyes, and the rabbit thing took off into the woods. "Is this really a magic desert?" Remus asked, wanting to get the immediate out of the way. Sirius-Peter nodded.**

 **"Are you and James okay?"**

 **"I am fine, but if someone doesn't get here soon, James might die." There was badly masked pain behind his voice.**

 **"What?" Remus started.**

 **"They, that is to say the skinwalkers, are draining the magic out of him. Magic energy rebuilds itself every twenty four hours, so it's not like he'll be left without magic, but, in the chance his magic doesn't have time to rebuild itself, they'll start draining his physical energy too, and he'll die if that gets too low."**

 **Remus suddenly felt sick.**

 **"How long do you think it'll take to get to that point, though?" He asked anxiously.**

 **"For James, awhile, but I'd rather not test that theory. You and Sirius are in a magic desert called the forest of whispered secrets, which is not far away from where James and I are being held, but do NOT try to rescue us by yourselves. I've given Severus a message to pass on to Flametail, she'll come and get us. If you two must come, wait for her." His eyes began to fade from blue back into brown, and Sirius shook his head.**

 **"That was only the second strangest thing that happened to me in the past three days, that's got to be bad, right?" Sirius asked, but Remus wasn't listening.**

 **Remus wasn't usually prejudice against Hogwarts houses, but he'd be damned if he was going to let Peter and James's rescue lie in the hands of two Slytherins, much less two Slytherins who each would rather one of them dead.**

 **"Peter and James are being held somewhere around here, and Peter told me that he's left it up to Snape and Flametail to rescue them, and not to try to help. I can't believe him, can you?" Remus asked Sirius incredulously.**

 **"He what? No way! Flametail wants him dead, and Snape wants James dead. What is he thinking?" Sirius gave a response exactly like what Remus was expecting from him.**

 **Sirius's Point of View**

 **"Are you two planning on going against your friend's wishes?" A voice asked from the shadows. Flametail stepped out from behind a tree. She wasn't wearing her school uniform anymore, instead, she was wearing a black catsuit wrapped in silver braided ropes hung with tiny bottles of potions and powders. Her hair, instead looking like ink pouring from the top of her head and over her shoulders, covering the left side of her face, it was pulled back in a long, messy braid that, though it looked hastily done, was almost attractive... wait, what? He did not just think that, he'd always thought Scorpion Flametail was ugly, with that stupid little sneer, and her permanent, ice cold glare. She didn't have either of those things right now, she was grinning, and her eyes were wide, alert, and sparkling mischievously. Other than that, she looked the same. She still had skin almost as pale as snow, makeup as dark as her hair, nail polish the same shade. She looked different, dare he think human.**

 **"So maybe we are, what's it to you?" Sirius challenged, folding his arms. Flametail laughed, not quite a giggle, not a cackle, but something kind of in between, it was almost cute... no way, he did not just think that either. He did not think anything Scorpion Flametail did or said was cute, ever.**

 **"Nothing really, I was just on my way to Cougar's Cavern to collect skinwalker teeth for a potion, when I passed the wreckage of a horse drawn cart and I overheard voices. I thought you you two might need help." She said with a shrug. There was something different in her voice, too. It had a similar sound, but, where it was always depressed or angry, it, while still being deep for a girl's, was bright and friendly.**

 **"Skinwalkers?" Remus snapped immediately.**

 **"Yes, why?" Flametail asked, cocking her head to one side and raising an elegantly sculpted eyebrow.**

 **"If you're collecting skinwalker teeth, then you obviously know where a lot of skinwalkers are, and seeing as our two best friends were kidnapped by them, I feel like it would be important to know where said location was." Sirius growled, anger building inside him. Flametail pursed her lips slightly, looking puzzled. She squeezed her eyes shut when she next spoke, reminding Sirius of an anime character.**

 **"Cougar's Cavern isn't far from here, I think you took a wrong turn at the tree of bitter sorrow." She said, sounding slightly confused.**

 **"You mentioned Cougar's Cavern before, but what** _ **is**_ **it?" Remus asked, crossing his arms.**

 **Flametail opened her eyes again and grinned. The next words came out of her mouth so fast, Sirius barely understood them.**

 **"You don't know about Cougar's Cavern? You two must be wand-weilders, oh sorry, that means wizard, but you probably figured that out anyway. I always thought you wizards were ever so clever being able to do spells without chi or chakra and being able to make affective potions without knowing about even half of the magical creatures that exist or the different variates of magical plants. Then there are some of you who can change form at will without having to center your chi, but wait you don't know what that is, how silly of me. You probably don't even know what I'm talking about right now do you? Are there schools you can go to, to learn wizard magic? Wait, of course there are, where else would the moggle borns go? That is what you call them right, moggles? I'm not sure, we just call them Te-sukiru. What school are you from? Ooh, wait, how did you end up here in the forest of whispered secrets? Do you know you're in a magic desert? Aw, you poor things must be lost, lucky that we just happened to run into each other isn't it? I can help you, ooh, wait you're two friends.**

 **I can take you up to Cougar's Cavern, and we can bring them out, and I can grab myself some skinwalker teeth. Their pretty hard to get, and their expensive. Have you ever used them before? Do most wand- I mean wizards know what skinwalkers are? No, hold on, I remember now, they don't. Aren't you two clever? Do you know what soul weavers are? I hope you haven't run into any of those, they can be nasty. Poor dears, just minding their own business, then poof! Oh, sorry, I got distracted again." Sirius turned to look at Remus, who looked over at him. Sirius knew for a fact that Remus's dropped jaw and raised eyebrows were mirrored on his face. This was definitely not the Scorpion Flametail they knew.**

 **"Wait, wouldn't you know the answers to most of those questions, you go to Hogwarts." Remus said exasperatedly.**

 **"Hogwarts, where's that?" Flametail asked. "No, wait, let me guess... Hogwarts is a wizard school... Am I right?"**

 **"Yes. You go to school there with us." Sirius answered, feeling quite confused.**

 **"No, I should think not. I've never even met a wand- sorry, wizard before, nor a witch for that matter. You must have me confused with someone else." She said. Sirius hadn't a clue as to what was going on, neither, it seemed, did Remus.**


	15. 15: The Great Milkshake Rescue Part One

**Chapter Fifteen**

 **The Great Milkshake Rescue**

 **Part One**

 **Remus's Point of view**

 **"You're name is Scorpion Flametail, right?" Sirius asked.**

 **"The one and only." She said giving Sirius the peace sign and a wink. "How'd you know?" She gasped. "Are you a legilimence?"**

 **"No, he's not." Remus said quickly, before Flametail could start spouting off questions again. "If you're completely sure you don't go to Hogwarts, then someone is attending school there under your name, who looks a whole lot like you, I might add."**

 **"Heffalumps and Woozles!" Flametail said angrily, her eyes suddenly flashing. "Ugh, I knew Vipress would do something like this. Kuso!" Remus had heard that last word before somewhere, after a second, he recognized it from when Peter had been covered in blood because of the chinodobutsu or whatever it was called.**

 **"Who's Vipress?" Sirius asked.**

 **"My twin sister... I need to ask a gargantuan favor of you two." Flametail said, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly, her fists clenching just like her jaw. She took a deep, steading breath, and her expression softened again. "After I help you retrieve your friends and heal their injuries, I need you to bring me my sister, do you think you can do that?" She asked, her voice one of determined calm. Her expression changed again and, in a puff of smoke she so did her outfit. It was more or less the same, except now it was navy blue and the braided ropes were much darker. The tiny bottles had been replaced with daggers, knives with diamond shaped blades and small rings at the end, and long, thick needles.**

 **"Let's go kick some shape-shifting butt!" She called, jumping up and punching the air, reminding Remus forcibly of the drawn characters Sirius, James, and now Peter had taped and pinned to the walls and their trunks. He looked over at Sirius who had his mouth open slightly again, and was blinking at him. "What? That was my alchemy outfit, this is my stealth outfit. Hold up, you two need suits too." She snapped her fingers and Remus felt the robes around him tighten. He looked down and saw that he too was wearing a navy blue catsuit. "Now, let's go kick some shape-shifting butts!" She repeated her earlier motion and took off through the trees, leaving Remus and Sirius no option but to follow her. One question was really bugging Remus. How had she just done such advanced magic without a wand? Then, another was added. How had she done magic in a magic desert? He would've asked her, but he didn't want to waste energy talking, when he could barely keep up with her as it was.**

 **She looked over her shoulder and slowed a bit.**

 **"Sorry, I thought I was running slow enough." She apologized. Remus was still having trouble keeping up with her, even at her decreased pace. He was sure he was about to give, and Sirius's face had turned a bit red, but Flametail looked perfectly at ease, she was even humming something, an upbeat and cheerful tune. Just as Remus was certain he was about to pass out, they came to a clearing that ended in a huge rock that looked as though it had to have been carved to look the way it did, because it was the perfect likeness of a roaring cougar with stalagmite and stalactite fangs and tunnels for the irises and pupils within the perfectly eye-shaped indentations, and came to a stop.**

 **Sirius's Point of View**

 **"This is cougar's cavern." Scorpion said brightly, flipping her braid back over her shoulders. Sirius felt his stomach drop away as the world seemed to slow down when she did this. He saw her turn and look at him with a big grin as though it were in slow motion. When their eyes met a nervous giddiness spread instantly across his body, but the moment had ended, and Scorpion was already on about something else. "Okay, we should take a rest here so you two won't be exhausted when we enter the cave. Oh, you know what? I've got energy replenishment potions in my bag, hold on." But that didn't make any sense, Scorpion didn't have a bag with her right then. Nonetheless, she made a motion as though she were pulling at a bag strap and reached down, her hand seeming to dissolve into the air. She pulled her arm back out of whatever she'd just reached into, and she was now holding two small vials filled with thick, bright blue liquid.**

 **"Here, drink these... they kind of taste like candy floss." She said, offering one to both Sirius and Remus.**

 **"Cheers." Remus said sounding grateful.**

 **"Thanks." Sirius said, hoping they'd account his breathlessness for coming from running such a long distance so quickly. Scorpion beamed at them. Sirius uncorked the vial and downed it in one go, prepared for the usual feeling of wanting to get sick that most potions gave him, but Scorpion was right, it tasted like sweets. A flow of energy rushed through him, and, suddenly, he felt as though he'd just woken, very rested, from a long nap.**

 **"Brilliant," Remus said, "you have got to show me how to do that."**

 **"Sure, it's pretty simple really, you've just..." Sirius cut across her with a cough. "Right, not the time." She looked straight up at the sky, extending her hand out in front of her face, fingers spread out, like she was measuring something. "Okay, it's around a quarter to six, skinwalkers have odd sleeping patterns... but if I'm not mistaken the ones of Cougar Cavern sleep between seven and ten, they're probably originally from America or something. We've got a bit of time to plan, that's always a bad omen."**

 **"It is?" Remus asked.**

 **"Sure, when things are working in your favor, yin and yang like to throw in an obstacle for you, especially when I'm involved... yes, they love to toy around with me. I think I might be their favorite. Oh, of course, you wouldn't know who they are, you'd know the sisters as fate or destiny... but really, you know there is no such thing as destiny."**

 **"Absolutely." Sirius agreed immediately, wanting her to look over in his direction again. "You hold your own future in your hands." Remus raised an eyebrow at him, and he shrugged in response. Scorpion flipped her braid again as she turned her head to look at him.**

 **"That's just what I've been trying to prove. According to a whole host of seers and psychics, I ought to have died two years ago... I was also supposed to be a Te-sukiru too, since Vipress was born thirteen seconds before I was. I didn't let that stop me from being a totally wicked shinobi and a great alchemist. Would you care for a milkshake?" Sirius blinked as she pushed a glass of a thick, pink liquid covered in whip cream and top with a cherry at him.**

 **"A what?" He asked.**

 **"Ohmygoshyoudontknowwhatamilkshakeis?" Scorpion spoke even faster this time than when she found out the Sirius and Remus were wizards.**

 **"Sorry, what? Could you say that again, but a bit slower?"**

 **"Oh my gosh you don't know what a milkshake is?" She said.**

 **"No." Sirius replied.**

 **"Ohmygoshyouhavenotliveddrinkit!"**

 **"Slower."**

 **"Oh my gosh you have not lived. Drink it." She ordered, poking a straw into it.**

 **"Okay... where'd you get this from, anyway?" He asked, taking it from her while Remus only blinked a few times.**

 **"Shush shush shush, don't ask questions. I want to see your face when you taste your first milkshake." She replied with a gigantic grin.**

 **"Okay..." Sirius took a sip of the cold, thick drink and felt his eyes widen. It was a bit like strawberry ice cream, but it had a slightly different taste to it. "What the heck?" He asked, while Remus accepted one from Scorpion who was grinning even more broadly.**

 **"You like it?" She asked.**

 **"Erm, yeah! This has to be the best drink I've ever had!" Sirius replied truthfully.**

 **"Brilliant! I made them myself." Somehow, she had a third one and was sipping it. "They're a Te-sukiru thing, I only found out about them last year, and I just had to see if I could make them well, and this is only the second time I've tried. Strawberry is my favorite, but I'll make some chocolate ones for you guys and you're friends some other time. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, once I take a liking to someone, I tend to show up at random moments around them. Hope that's not super annoying to you. If it is, I won't do it."**

 **"Not at all." Sirius said immediately, shaking his head and getting another raised eyebrow from Remus. Scorpion beamed again.**

 **"Brilliant!" There was the sound of footsteps and, in a blur of snowy white, black, and creamy pink, Scorpion was gone, revealing a mutated deer-wolf-man hybrid that sent a chill down Sirius's spine. He didn't have a wand and anyways they were in a magic desert. What was he supposed to do? Why did Scorpion just leave them there? Did she do it on purpose, did she just get frightened, or was she planning something? Was this a trap? Was she using them as bait? Had they stupidly trusted her when they shouldn't have? A loud thump and a "Ha!" reached Sirius's ears before he had the chance to move, and what was, most likely, a skinwalker fell forward into the grass, slowly morphing into a tall, old, reddish skinned man with long grey hair that looked like it was probably black at some point.**

 **"Cowardly, shape-shifting trash, how dare you try to attack a poor, defenseless, little girl when her back's turned?" Scorpion scolded playfully. She was still holding her milkshake, and it looked as though not a drop had been spilled.**

 **"OohIjustgotanamazingidea!" She called. This time, Sirius was pretty sure he knew what she said.**

 **"What's your amazing idea?" He asked, a bit skeptically.**

 **"You understood that?" Remus asked him.**

 **"I believe so." Sirius replied, making Scorpion give her cute little laugh.**

 **"I need you to look around and see if you can find any of the plant dragonshade." Was all she said.**

 **"Erm... what does dragonshade look like?" Remus asked. Scorpion blinked, then said;**

 **"Oops, sorry. I forgot. You'd know it as Henbane." She squeezed her eyes shut and stuck out her tongue slightly, then opened her eyes again and said; "Oops."**

 **"Henbane is used in sleeping potions, what do you want it for?" Sirius asked, trying to sound smarter than he was.**

 **"You'll see." Scorpion replied brightly. Remus rolled his eyes.**

 **"Whatever you say." He said.**

 **"Remus, what does Henbane look like again?"**

 **"It's a yellowish white flower that has green lines all over them that kind of make it look like its got scales; it has a brown center and all these tiny tubes poking out of the middle." He answered. "Its leaves are spiky looking, but they're a little soft to the touch."**

 **"Okay." Sirius said. He took another sip of his milkshake while he was looking at the foliage in search for the flower Remus described. He happened to spot one, and reached out to grasp it, but just before his fingers touched its stem, it jumped back out of the way.**

 **"Hm?" He made another grab for it, but it moved again. He was sure Henbane was a plant muggles knew about too, so it shouldn't be able to move, but he'd been wrong before and he didn't really remember much about the plant. He was about to ask Remus, but the plant was now starting to walk off. It was the only Henbane around, so Sirius put his milkshake down and dove after it. He closed the flower in his hands, and made to yank the plant out of the ground, however, he ended up tugging it out of a hand, a light green hand that was reaching out of the ground. Zombie. The word flitted through his head in the beginnings of panic as the only conclusion his startled brain thought of chilled his blood, sending a shutter down his spine.**

 **Scorpion's point of view**

 **She saw Sirius Black put down his milkshake and dive out of sight. That guy was so funny sometimes. She rolled her eyes, laughed, flipped her braid out of her way, and continued mashing the witch hazel she took out of her potions kit. She was wearing her alchemy suit again. She felt she had to wear it, it just helped her concentrate on the task at hand.**

 **"Merlin!" Sirius yelped. Scorpion was on her feet before he finished the word, and was over the bushes and into the tiny clearing before she heard Sirius laughing. Remus had come into the small clearing as well. Sirius was stuck in the dirt, his entire body underground, except for his head. A female flower elf stood in front of him, her back turned to him and a Henbane blossom clasped in her light green hands. Her hair had short, yellow-white elegant spikes that simulated flower petals on the top of her head, while straight pale green locks fell over her shoulders. She wore a brown ribbon as a head band that was tied in a hasty but nonetheless good-looking bow. Her eyes were closed, but Scorpion guessed they were also light green. She was scowling.**

 **"Ah, my mistake Sirius, I should've guessed a henbane flower elf lived around here. My bad." Scorpion grinned."We really do need a henbane flower." She added to the elf who opened one of her pale green eyes to lock Scorpion in a calculating gaze. "We only need one, just to use in a potion, so we can get those shape-shifting demons out of here."**

 **The elf pursed her lips, one of her pointed ears twitched slightly.**

 **"Are you speaking of the skinwalkers?" She asked. Her voice was much more gentle and soothing than the rose flower elf Scorpion had once met. It was rather like listening to a veela's voice.**

 **"Yes I am." Scorpion replied calmly, trying not to laugh as Remus attempted to pull Sirius out of the ground.**

 **"The intrusive shapeshifters must leave, but they refuse to listen to reason. They have scared the other elves away, and my brothers, sisters, and cousins refuse to come back until somebody shows the demons that they do not rule the world." The elf frowned. Her ears drooped, but her eyes contained a hopeful gleam. "You need a flower to get rid of them?"**

 **"Yes." Scorpion replied truthfully.**

 **"Then you will have a flower." She plucked a leafless, thin vine from a tree and squeezed it in her fist. Instantly, jagged leaves pushed themselves out of the tiny vine, and white, scaly looking petals formed at the top.**

 **"Domo Arigoto, Guardian." Scorpion said, bowing slightly. "Remus san, let me get Sirius out." She called brightly, practically skipping as she crossed over to them.**

 **"Okay, but he's stuck pretty deep. We should probably sling a vine up over that branch up there, and I'd pull on that end, then get a thick branch and find a way to get it under Sirius's feet and you could push down on that end, that way it'll be a lot easier to... oh, never mind I guess."**

 **Remus's Point of view**

 **"Remus san, let me get Sirius out." Scorpion called. In a puff of smoke she was wearing something that looked like black yoga pants and a tight black tang top with a bright pink stripe down the side, except the tang top only covered the top half of her torso. She really did have an outfit for everything. He stepped back to let Scorpion attempt to pull Sirius out of the dirt, but immediately started talking about using a crude mix between a lever and a pulley system. There was no need, apparently, for his idea, because Scorpion wrenched Sirius out of the ground as easy as if he were just laying on his back and she'd pulled him to his feet. Sirius blinked, then flushed slightly and murmured,**

 **"Wow, er... thanks." Most people would have figured that Sirius was embarrassed because he had to be helped by a girl, but Remus knew better. Sirius respected that some girls, or rather, a lot of girls were even tougher, stronger, and more rebellious than he was. No, Sirius was flushing for a different reason, and Remus knew why. He was embarrassed because he had to be helped in front of his knew crush who just so happened to be the one to help him.**

 **"You're welcome. Well, now that we have the Dragon, sorry, Henbane I can put the first phase of the Great Milkshake Rescue into action.**

 **"The Great Milkshake Rescue?" Remus and Sirius repeated in unison. They both looked over at each other, sharing an exasperated look, but Remus could tell Sirius secretly thought it was a cute title. Another puff of smoke and Scorpion was in her catsuit with gleaming powders again. She took a running start then leaped gracefully over the shrubbery and under the tree branches landing gracefully and silently on the other side of them.**

 **"Come on then, I need your help for this, this is a three person job." She called.**

 **"This should be interesting." Remus muttered to himself. Sirius had already began to take a running start. He jumped over the bushes and did a sort of summersault when he almost nose dived into the grass.**

 **"Nice, Sirius, I'll make a ninja out of you yet!" Remus heard Scorpion say. He rolled his eyes, thanked the elf, and walked around the bushes like the sensible person he was.**


	16. 16: The Great Milkshake Rescue Part Two

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p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;"Sirius's Point of View/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""So how exactly are we going to pull this off?" Sirius asked, watching Scorpion mash the Henbane and pour the juices of it into a little bowl she had in front of her. She added some odd grey powder and a strange green jelly-like substance to the bowl of henbane juices. She mashed them together, then looked up at him. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Do you trust me?" She asked, locking eyes with him. Sirius felt his cheeks growing hot. His mouth felt dry. He hated that he felt like that around Scorpion. That's how girls were supposed act and feel around him./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Is that a trick question?" He asked, attempting to be funny and charming. Usually he didn't have to try, nor did he specifically want to, but now he did. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""No, Sirius. I want to know. Do you trust me?" Her eyebrows knitted together as she continued to hold his gaze. It was a stare down of sorts, and Scorpion was winning. Sirius felt the sudden urge to look down at the ground, but he didn't want to look away from those eyes. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Yes, I trust you." He answered./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Good." She smiled, mixing the ingredients she'd put in the bowl until they somehow became a blood red jelly. She then poured the juice from that, which was somehow bright pink, into the milkshake beside her. emWhat a waste of a perfectly good milkshake,/em Sirius thought to himself. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""You have to drink this, I'll give you additional information afterward." She said. For once her voice was dead serious. Then she smiled and, returning to her earlier, playful tones, she said; "I'll give you a little kiss on the cheek if you do." Sirius felt himself growing hot again./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Erm... okay." She handed him the glass. He was slightly surprised when it tasted exactly the same as it did before she added whatever potion she'd put in. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;"He put it down and was about to ask what it was supposed to do, when he began to feel extremely tiered. His limbs felt like lead and his eyelids and suddenly became the weight of boulders. He yawned so widely he felt as though he looked like the cavern for a second. What was he even doing out here, and who was that adorable girl right beside him? He fell back into the grass, a welcome sleep stealing over him./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;"Remus's Point of View/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""What did you do to him?" Remus asked./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I loosened his soul." She replied brightly, as though she were talking about an art project./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""You WHAT?" Remus bellowed./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I'm going to switch his soul with the chakra of a skinwalker, then Sirius will be able to get us into the cavern. Then, we'll have exactly forty-five minutes to find your friends and get them out before the potion begins to ware off. Then I switch the soul and chakra back, and kill the unlucky skinwalker, easy as that." /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""That's not a good idea." Remus heard himself squeak./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Do have a better one?" Scorpion asked, but just as politely as ever./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Well, no." Remus admitted, shuffling his feet. "But you should've told Sirius what was going to happen."/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I didn't want him to be scared. Ugh, we don't have time to argue." She put her hand over Sirius's mouth and her other hand over the skinwalker's chest. A dark blue orb of light appeared in her hand over the skinwalker, and a shining whit light came floating slowly out of Sirius's mouth. Remus knew there was no way to stop it now, Sirius's soul was already outside of his body. She turned around with caution, placing Sirius's soul over the skinwalker's mouth, and pushing the odd, pulsing blue light into Sirius's chest. The skinwalker sat up, groaning. emNo, /emRemus corrected himself, emSirius sat up. /em/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I'll give you that kiss when you get back in your body." Scorpion told Sirius, grasping his wrist. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Kay." His voice was warped and scratchy, but Remus could still tell he was dazed. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Here's the plan, Sirius." Scorpion said in a low voice stepping closer to him. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I've put you in the body of a skinwalker, so you have increased strength and senses. You'll cary the two of us in there in the form of the mutated zombie deer thing, and pretend to be bringing us in as prisoner. We find your friends' cages, get them out, and high-tail it out of there. Once we get out, I'll place a temporary sanctarium charm around the mouth of the cougar, and put you back in your body. Then, you get your kiss, and we all get out of here." Sirius nodded. Even in the skinwalker's body his crush was evident. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Hold on a second, I don't know how to change form." Sirius said./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Sure you do, silly." Scorpion teased. "It's the same as being an animagus, but you can turn into anything." Her fingers slid down into his hand, and Sirius's cheeks became redder than they'd been./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Right, that makes sense." He muttered. Sirius heard the sound of some boy yelling out, followed immediately by a girl. Two figures fell into a nearby bush with a heavy thud./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;"Severus's Point of View/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;"He couldn't find Flametail anywhere. She wasn't at the castle, it was really the only explanation. He'd been studying her the night before. He wanted to know what made Peter think that she was trustworthy and strong enough to be their lone savior, and things didn't quite add up. There were articles about her doing all sorts of good deeds around the world, in America, in China, in Japan, there in England, in India. There were articles a bout her discovering magical creatures from those places too, and more dangerous places like the Amazon rain forest where she discovered an acramantula, alligator cross breed and Antarctica were she was the first one to prove that something called a Frigus Furrure existed and lived there. There were book excerpts showcasing spells she'd invented, and they were light-hearted innocent spells, like an instantaneous cloths changing spell, or a spell that turns you into your spirit animal, though there were no instructions available for that spell. Each of these was accompanied by a picture. Her hair was much longer in all of the pictures than Severus had ever seen it. At first glance, you wouldn't have noticed. It fell to her hips like always, but Severus realized that it was up in a braid, so it was actually a lot longer, but some of the articles were published during that school year, including one written two days earlier. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;"She also had a scar down her left cheek in her pictures, but Severus was certain he'd never seen a scar anywhere on her. It was also never mentioned that Scorpion Flametail was attending Hogwarts, except in a list of ninjas in the Flametail clan, and her identification photo was the only picture of her Severus could find that looked like the girl he was used to seeing sulking around the halls with thick volumes on dark magic or digging a random hole by the forbidden forest and suspiciously burying something. There was something odd going on. Severus made his way back down to the archives, intending to talk to Master Leilani about Flametail, but something strange happened. His vision clouded over and turned completely white. It started to disperse and a scene in which Peter and Potter were both in opened before his eyes. The two of them were standing in front of a mountain shaped perfectly like a cougar. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Severus, come help us." Peter whispered./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""They're going to kill Sirius and Remus. You've got to help us." Potter pleaded. "Please, I swear I'll never be mean to you again." /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Sev!" Someone was calling him from somewhere far beyond the cougar. It was a very familiar voice. He was laying on his back on the floor of the library, in front of the entrance to the archives. Lily and her friend Chrysanthemum were standing behind him. The blonde had a sneer on her face, but Lily looked very concerned. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Severus, are you okay? What happened? Did someone attack you?" She asked./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""No... not... oh, Merlin we've got to save them, Lily. They're going to die." Her eyes widened as though she now knew exactly what had happened. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Chrysanthemum, will you go get Madame Pompherey please?" Lily said to her friend./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Yeah, sure, whatever, Lily." She muttered and walked slowly away, probably hoping that Severus would die while she stalled. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Who's going to die, Severus? Tell me what you saw." She said, helping him to his feet. A hot blush covered his cheeks when she touched his hand. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I saw Potter and Peter. They were standing in front of this cave shaped like a cougar...Potter told me that someone was going to kill Black and Lupin. Lily we've got to do something."/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I know, Sev, calm down. Master Leilani will be able to help us. She'll tell us where that cave is, there can't be many of them. I'm sure we can get her to come with us, if not, we can do this ourselves." She opened the entrance to the Archives and pulled Severus in. The bookcase rolled shut silently. They were running down the stairs of the Archives, when they ended up running smack into someone coming the opposite way. There was only one person that could be./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Watch it, will you?" Flametail hissed, trying to gather the books she'd dropped. Without thinking, Severus snatched up the collar of her robes, and pulled her up, almost off of her feet./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Where have you been, you bloody coward?" He hissed at her. She blinked, looking shocked. "Your partner has been missing and in the jaws of doom, and you decide that that is the best time to just wander off? What the sodding hell were you thinking?"/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Put me down, Snape." She hissed venomously. Severus threw her onto the stairs. "I don't really care if Potter and Pettigrew die, and If Lupin and Black are smart, they won't, so why don't you just..." She cut off when Severus slapped her across the face. He wasn't sure where his anger was coming from, he just knew that it was there and it was strong. She gasped, incredulously./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Severus," Lily gasped./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""You're going to help us wether you like it or not." He growled, menacingly. "Take us to the mouth of the Cougar now."/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I was going to beat you senseless for having the gall to hit me, but since you're going on a suicide mission, I guess I should do myself the pleasure of prolonging you inevitable suffering in the near future. If you want to go running into the open arms of skinwalkers, all you had to do was ask." She extracted a blackened, cracked up crystal from her pocket. She drew the outline of a doorway on the wall. Inside the outline, a giant, dark, ominous hole expanded into existence. "Sayonara." She said in a very creepy tone. Lily looked unnerved. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""You can stay here, I wouldn't blame you." Severus said, gently. Why was he even doing this? Those four made his life a living hell at Hogwarts. What did he care if they died? Potter, Black, Lupin, and Peter... Peter. Without a second thought, or waiting for Lily's reply, Severus ran straight through the doorway, and fell out of it. He was surrounded by morning air for a moment, yelling as he fell. He landed in a bush that had many thorns all over its branches. Lily had landed right next to him. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;"Lily screamed. Severus looked around. Flametail was holding hands with some Native American man, Sirius Black was lying on the ground in what looked like a black catsuit, not moving, and Lupin, in the same suit, was standing next to them, looking apprehensive. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Oh, so you decided to help, did you... and how did you get here faster than us?" Lily demanded./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I'm sorry, but you really must have me confused with someone else." Flametail replied. Lily must not have noticed what Severus did. Flametail's hair was longer, and she had a scar on her left cheek. She also had a polite, bright tone in her voice./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Yes, I'm afraid we do." Severus apologized, clambering out of the bush with as much dignity as he could manage. "We thought you were Scorpion Flametail."/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""She is," The man said, "The one we know and hate is Vipress Flametail, her twin sister."/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I don't mean to be rude, but who the hell are you?" Severus snarled./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Oh, right, I forgot I was an old man for a second. I'm Sirius... I just got my soul switched with a skinwalkers cat-tra..."/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Chakra." Flametail corrected./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Right, a skinwalkers chakra."/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Why?" Severus asked./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""You'll see." Flametail said, unhelpfully. "You two just wait out here... we kind of have a plan, but it's always good to have back up. If we aren't back in thirty minutes, tie that thing down," She jabbed her thumb over at Sirius's body, "If we're not back in forty, we failed and we need help. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Maybe I should be part of the back up group too." Lupin said./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""No." Flametail denied his request. "Don't try to worm out of this, we need three people."/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I'll trade with him." Why did he keep saying things like that? He didn't want to go in./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Okay then."/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Actually, maybe that isn't a good idea." Lupin said./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Oh, Merlin, Lupin. Do you really think I'd drag Lily and myself all the way over here just to sabotage this, you probably wouldn't do well on your own anyway, even with Flametail's help, so the only logical reason for me to be here is that I actually plan to help, not just stand here all day as a contingency." Why exactly was he fighting for this?/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Why do you want to get in so badly?" Lupin scowled./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Why do you all of a sudden want to go?" Severus shot back./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Woah, okay, calm down. I'm taking the psychic." Flametail said. "This is a time sensitive mission, we don't have time to argue... you need a mission suit." She clapped her hands, and Severus felt his robes tighten around him. Lily giggled./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""You look good, Sev." He blushed and looked down at himself. He was wearing a matching uniform to the other three, but his had a golden Egyptian hieroglyph in the shape of an eye on the side of his left pant leg, and matching golden silk hung loosely around his waist. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Why..."/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""No time, lets go!" She commanded. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;"Lily's point of view/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;"She had to admit it, the boys looked pretty damn good in the uniforms Flametail forced upon them. She was pretty sure that even Potter would look attractive in one of those... ugh, why was she even thinking about that? It had been a while since they'd gone in, and she was scared for them. Sure, Black and Potter were annoying, but they didn't deserve to die at such a young age, and Severus and Peter were just misunderstood. They were good guys... for the most part. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Do you think they're going to be okay?" Lily asked Lupin./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I dunno, but I sure hope so." He replied./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Even Severus?" She inquired. The silence was hard to handle. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Yes, even him. I never particularly disliked him, I just never really stood up to my friends for him like Peter did."/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I wonder why he did that. I thought it was great and everything, but why?"/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I reckon he has a bit of a crush on Snape."/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Peter? I didn't think he was gay." /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Yeah, I kind of figured out that he is... I'm not even sure if he knows it yet, but he pays attention to male bodies way more than to female bodies." He said thoughtfully. "And I have a certain, er... knack for telling when someone has feelings for someone else. I haven't been wrong yet, and I don't plan to now." Lily nodded./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""So, why'd Scorpion call Snape 'the psychic', Lily? Do you know?"/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I don't know how she knew, but Severus found out he was psychic a few days ago. That's how we found you guys, he had a vision of this cave... but I'm not sure what he saw, exactly. Lupin looked impressed./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""I've never met a real psychic before. After all of this is over, I'd like to ask him some questions about how clairvoyance works." /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""So would I." Lily agreed/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""You think we should tie Sirius's body down, about now?" Lupin asked./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Sure." Lily did not need a reason to do that./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 16.0px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Nope!" Flametail called cheerily from the mouth of the cave. "We've got everything under control." Potter, Peter, Severus and Black were with her. /p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Oh, er... Hi, Evens." Potter said, half grinning. "You came to help us too?"/p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""No. I came to help Peter." She corrected him. He looked very disappointed. "Do you need help getting Black back into his body?" She asked, walking forward./p  
p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times New Roman;""Lily, no!" Severus called, he was standing in the mouth of the cave... but wasn't he right behind her? It was a bit too late. Potter grabbed both of her arms, except he wasn't Potter anymore. He had taken the form of a skeletal, mutated deer standing on its hind legs. All of them had turned back into their demon forms. Lupin was struggling against three of them while the other two were attempting to pull Lily into the cave. Something struck her in the back of the head, and darkness enveloped her senses, but she knew she wasn't in the cat's mouth yet. /p 


	17. 17: Over Powered Overload

Chapter Seventeen

Overpowered Overload

Severus's point of view

They had gotten caught. Severus had warned them, but they had still gotten caught. Apparently, they didn't have enough cages, because they'd been tossed into one of them, with the exception of Black, which happened to be the one Peter was being held in. Peter was chained, but they hadn't chained the rest of them. They'd explained the Flametail situation to him, and he was miffed, then he explained the situation with Potter. The wheels in Severus's mind were turning. He was creating a plan, a good one.

"I know what to do." He whispered.

"Yeah, what?" Flametail asked excitedly.

"I can't exactly say... if I told you, it wouldn't work."

"Sounds solid to me." She said. Severus blinked at her.

"Peter, do you think you could get one of the bars off?" He asked.

"Easily, why?" He responded. How could he remain so calm right now?

"I need to call in some back up."

"What?" Peter asked.

"Just trust me, Peter." Peter shrugged and pulled one of the bars out of their positions, throwing it to the ground. The chains stopped him from moving any further than that, so he was of no further use until the final phase... if his assumption proved correct.

"Peter, can shinobi magics be tampered with by emotions like wizarding magic can?" He asked.

"Well, sure they are, if you mean that accidental spell casting still occurs." He replied.

"Perfect." Severus grinned, rubbing his hands together.

"You look a bit like James and Sirius when they're planning something when you do that." Peter said.

"No I don't, don't you ever say that again." Severus shot at him.

"Flametail, how much do you know about the skinwalkers?" He asked her.

"Everything." Was her answer.

"What do they use to drain the power out of the wizards and witches?"

"The cages."

"Where do the store the power?"

"I'm not sure where exactly it is, but they have something like a giant crystal ball that locks the magic inside until skinwalkers come to eat some of it."

"Do you think there's a limit to how much magic it can hold?"

"That's the only explanation as to why they don't drain the power from everyone being held all at once."

"Perfect." Severus said. He slowly, carefully, climbed out of the cage and onto the stone ledge that wound around the cave. Feeling his way around the walls, it took him about fifteen minutes to find his way out. Skinwalkers were already out there, coaxing Lily to them. "Lily, no!" He cried without thinking.

He saw them knock Lily unconscious, and a raging fire of anger roared to life in his chest. He knew he shouldn't attack them himself, there was no way to use his wand, and no amount of pretending could make him a shinobi, but today was an odd day for Severus.

"Leave them alone!" He bellowed. A fierce wind howled to life, blowing his hair and his robes out in front of him. He was glowing such a strong white light that it was clearly visible around him even in the bright daylight. All five of the skinwalkers fell to the ground, clutching their heads and shrieking, morphing back to their human forms. He lurched forward, and caught Lily before she hit the ground. His white aura transfered to her for a second, then disappeared all together as her eyes fluttered open.

"Snape... how in the world did... was that a psychic's spell?" Lupin stuttered. Severus wasn't really listening to him. He had just realized that Lily Evens was in his arms, and she wasn't pulling away. His face was burning. Why'd he have to blush now?

"Erm... thanks, Sev." She said, sounding embarrassed. He put her back down on the ground, not really wanting to. He was glad he did put her down then, when she flung her arms around him and kissed his cheek. He was sure he might faint.

"You were so brave coming here today." She said. "I didn't know it was going to be so dangerous. I can't believe you're dealing with all of this to save them, even though they were always so mean to you. I'm sorry I ever thought you might become a death eater. Nobody as brave as you ever would."

Severus was feeling very dazed. He knew Lily was talking like that because she was both scared and embarrassed and wanted to get it off her chest without actually admitting that she was scared, but she must've believed what she was saying, right? She thought he was brave. He was very pleased with himself.

"Where's everybody else?" Lupin demanded.

"We got caught. That's why I'm out here, to get you two, we need help. I've got a plan that's got a ninety percent chance of working, but it has to be done now." He responded.

"Then what are we waiting around here for?" Lily asked, stepping back from Severus, who couldn't help but feel disappointed. "Let's go save them."

Carefully, and quietly Severus led them back into the cavern and through the winding tunnels to the point where Peter and Flametail were being held.

"Flametail, we need Black back in his body, think you can make that happen?" He inquired. Flametail's eyes lit up.

"Do crumple-horned snorkraks like to dance to the fairy song?" She asked, gleefully.

"What?" Lily and Lupin asked in unison.

"That means yes." Peter said from behind her.

She zipped out of the cage humming what Severus imagined to be the fairy song.

Remus's point of view

It was almost twenty minutes later when Scorpion returned with Sirius. She had her arms wrapped around both of his shoulders as they walked, and Sirius seemed quite pleased, if not a bit flustered.

"Kay, Sirius is here. What now?" Scorpion asked cheerily, squeezing Sirius.

"Everyone get into James's cage." Snape replied.

"Wait, why?" Remus asked. That was a slightly odd request.

"Just trust me, I have a plan." The next thing Remus knew, he was being pushed along into the cage by Scorpion, who seemed to be very trusting of Snape for some odd reason. Snape began to undo the chains around Peter. Peter stared at Snape for a moment, and Snape stared right back. It looked as though they were both attempting to access the other's mind. After a moment, Peter frowned but joined them in James's cage.

"So, er... what are we supposed to be doing now?" Sirius asked. Snape shrugged.

"I haven't a clue what you're going to do, all I know is I guaranteed myself permanent safety by making sure all of you stay here forever." He smirked.

"What do you mean?" Remus demanded. Just as he said this, he began to understand. His knees buckled, he couldn't stand, he was so tired. The cage was going to draw out all of their energy until they all collapsed.

"Severus, no! You can't be serious!" Lily yelled. Remus's vision was going foggy. Sirius collapsed next to him, out cold. Remus was, for once, thankful for his werewolf side, it was much stronger and much more unwilling to let go of consciousness. Lily was the next to fall.

"Snape!" Peter roared, but even he looked as though he were about to pass out. Snape started to walk away.

"Don't you dare turn your back on us!" Remus growled as loudly as his exhausted state would allow. Snape looked back, and smirked again, then continued walking toward what was surely the exit of the cavern. Two skinwalkers standing there moved aside, bowing slightly as though to show gratitude, and Remus snapped. So did Peter and Scorpion.

"I'll kill you!" All three of them yelled at the same was a deafening bang, and the sound of wrenching metal. Accidental magic had caused a spike in magical energy, and the chains securing the cage to the roof of the cavern snapped. They were falling, all of the cages were. People who were still awake were screaming. Everything came to a stand-still.

"Wonderful plan, Snape-samma!" Scorpion called out. "You really had me going there!" White light and black smoke engulfed the cages that had been falling. They were now all suspended in midair.

"Now I get it. We overloaded the power stores!" Peter yelled. "Brilliant, Severus!" James groaned, sitting up.

"What... when did you guys get here... why is Flametail here? Lily!" His eyes widened as Lily too began to sit up. James helped her to her feet. Sirius woke up next.

"I don't even want to know, do I?" He grumbled.

"We overloaded their magic reserves." Peter shrugged.

"Snape-samma saved us, Sirius." Scorpion said, brightly, wrapping her arms around him again.

"We're never going to live this down." Sirius pouted. Snape laughed good-naturedly.

"Just don't tell anyone this happened and I'll forget all about it." He said, loudly enough for them to hear.

"Deal." Sirius responded. Snape slowly lifted his hands up, causing the cages to rise up to the ledge around the pit. Skinwalkers littered the walk way, obviously unconscious. The sound of cheers and joyous crying were soon echoing off the walls. The doors to the cages flung open as they reached the ledge.

"Watch your step everybody." Scorpion announced brightly. "The ledge is thin and slippery. Please do not hang body parts of any kind over the side, if you fall, we may not be able to help you. Please feel free to kick a skinwalker on your way out. Thank you for visiting Cougar cavern!"

Sirius and James laughed loudly along with a couple of the other hostages. Everyone took the invitation to kick a skinwalker while they made their exit. The marauders, Lily, Scorpion, and Severus hung back. Scorpion looked around thoughtfully.

"Severus, would you help me repair these cages?" Scorpion asked. "We could just destroy this place, but I've got a use in mind for it."

"I got it." Peter said with a smile. He clapped his hands twice and the chains seemed to weld themselves together again. Remus had intended to watch Scorpion for a minute as she busied herself with whatever she was doing, but James had walked straight up to Snape, and that drew everyone's attention. Everyone other than Scorpion who was now humming I Can See Clearly Now.

"Snape... I... er... I think that it's time we... we put our... our differences behind us." He choked it out as though it were painful to say the words.

"I had nothing to do with that." Peter claimed, looking alarmed.

"Flametail, I think you missed one." Snape declared, pointing at James and pursing his lips. Remus looked over his shoulder. Sure enough, Scorpion had rounded up all the skinwalkers and shoved them in the cages Peter had repaired.

"Snape, could you just not be an arse for twenty seconds?" James huffed hotheadedly.

"Never mind, it's fine." He said.

"Look, I had time to think when I was locked up in that cage..." James began.

"That's dangerous." Snape interrupted. Scorpion snorted.

"You are making this very hard to say." James growled.

"Okay, okay." Snape held up his hands in a motion of surrender.

"I'm trying to say that I realized that I was unfair to you for almost no reason and if I had died then, I think I would have regretted not being able to say sorry. So can we just pretend like none of that had happened?" James had an expression on his face that made it clear that he'd rather be eaten alive by puffskins than say that to Snape, but he held out his hand.

"Sure, Potter." Snape said, surprisingly. He shook James's hand, though admittedly briefly.

"So... er... water under the bridge?" James asked, awkwardly. Snape nodded. They were both refusing to meet the other's gaze. "So we're cool?"

"Yeah." He said.

"But that doesn't mean we're friends." James said immediately.

"God forbid." Snape muttered.

"Aw, I told you you guys were going to turn into best buddies soon enough." Lily said brightly.

"We are not friends!" James and Snape said firmly in unison.

"Does anyone else feel like we're forgetting something?" Sirius asked a bit randomly.

"The skinwalkers at school!" Peter said his eyes widening. The school could be crawling with them by now!"

"All right kiddies!" Scorpion called, grinning. "Field trip's over! Grab a souvenir and let's head back to school!"

"What happened to her?" James asked as Scorpion yanked some teeth out of a skinwalker's mouth and a fist full of hair from the same one's head. They followed her out of the cavern.

"We've been dealing with her identical twin sister at Hogwarts." Sirius explained, catching up with Scorpion. James smirked at their backs. Once outside, James found a long, sharp, jagged piece of stone and slipped it into his pocket. Remus cocked his head at him.

"Hey, if I'm going to be going on crazy adventures, I want something to remember them by. So, how much detective stuff have I missed?"

Remus filled James in on them knowing that Peter was a ninja and that Snape was psychic, information he'd gotten from Lily, and about Scorpion and how she told them her sister was pretending to be her. They were going to go find that carriage that Remus had ripped up and repair it so they could get to Hogwarts in a day. Lily started a conversation with Peter over "What the heck is a kunai used for other than throwing at people's heads". Scorpion was chattering away about some kind of creature that Remus was sure didn't really exist called a blibbering humdinger, while Sirius stared at her, most likely not taking in a word. James was tossing the stone in the air and catching it again and Snape was looking over toward Peter and Lily with a jealous and possessive expression. The question was, who was he feeling like that over? Peter or Lily? Remus sighed. The rest of this year was going to be a long one.


	18. 18: The Journals

Beginning A/N: Okay, so, I know I said it was finished, but I realized that Chapter 17 had a funky download and was written in source code by mistake. The last chapter was actually very detrimental to the story line, so I rewrote it, made it better, and added an ominous bonus that wasn't there before to it. I hope you enjoy.

-Queen of the Scorpions

Chapter 18

The Journals

James's Journal

The most insane thing just happened to me, and no one is ever going to believe it. Wormtail said that keeping a journal would help me make sense of everything that happened. I think he's right. Just before Christmas, two of my best friends, Moony and Wormtail, were acting a bit strangely. They kept saying that they were seeing a demon, but Padfoot and I didn't believe them. Wormtail mysteriously disappeared on winter holiday and returned a changed man. It seemed he couldn't catch a break, though. What happened when Shinobi, Wizards, and evil Shapeshifters clashed? My long term enemy, My long term crush, a ninja named Scorpion, and us marauders teamed up and kicked demon ass! After the whole cave incident, of which Wormtail has declared we will never go into detail about, Scorpion decided to take her place in Hogwarts. She showed up and ran her sister out by turning her into a cat with the word 'copy cat' in white fur on her back. I took up writing as a hobby. Not something I thought I would ever do, but Peter got me into a few different fictional book series and I decided that literature was worth looking into. As you can see, I definitely need to work at it some, but I've gone from mediocre at best to a bit higher than average, and I'm really proud of myself for it. I've been working and practicing so hard. Any way, the insane thing that happened was, I just became best friends with my arch nemesis and my crush, and one of my other best friends who used to be kind of, well, hopeless, is now just about the coolest person ever! My life is pretty weird right now, actually. Well, I'll be back later.

-Prongs

Peter's Journal

I'm not really quite sure what to make of this. Life at Hogwarts has changed pretty drastically. The real Scorpion Flametail has joined us at Hogwarts and she drove her wicked sister away. Everyone seems to love me now, and I'm not sure that it's sitting quite well with Prongs that I'm more popular than he. I am, however, sure that he would never admit it, even to himself, if that were the case. He's a loyal friend, if nothing else, and he would convince himself that he was happy for me. Padfoot is too preoccupied with Scorpion to even notice, I doubt he even realizes that popularity is a thing anymore. Speaking of Scorpion, she has a really strange habit of appearing out of nowhere whenever you're talking about her. If I didn't know any better, I'd've thought she tabbooed her name. Moony and I were talking and we decided it would be good to get the other two into hobbies that are less… dangerous and sports related than quidditch. Something that'll take up their time and keep them out of trouble that would be good for them in the long run. We introduced them to a few fictional books, but Padfoot wasn't taking to it. I think we started him off on too big of a book. Prongs took off with it though. If he's not at quidditch practise, he's got either a book or a quill and parchment in his hands. I think he'll blossom into an excellent writer if he keeps up with it. We got Padfoot into artwork, specifically sketching, and he's been practicing quite a lot. It's the only thing he does besides trying to win Scorpion over. Moony started writing poetry. He's amazing at it in my opinion, especially for a beginner. I'm fairly sure that's his coping mechanism for everything that's going on right now. If it's hard for me, I can't imagine how hard it must be for him. He goes through so much on a regular. I think I'm going to start something like that to relieve stress. Maybe an instrument. I've always wanted to learn flute.

-Wormtail

Remus's Journal

Pain is only pain

Just like a storm is only rain

It doesn't last for long

And it make the plants grow strong

And it's followed a calm

That reaches everyone

Words can save a life

And words can cause some strife

But you don't have to bleed

Just take my hand and follow my lead

-Moony

Severus's Journal

Last night, I had a horrible nightmare. I normally wouldn't think much of it, but I recently discovered my psychic abilities, and this dream, though it was blotched and incomplete, felt so extremely real that I thought I should write it down in case it means something. The dream began with James running into view, panting and out of breath. He was saying something about Sirius having been turned to stone and he didn't know what to do. Just as suddenly as all that had happened, I found myself in an empty room in what must have been the dungeons with a great statue of Salazar Slytherin standing at the far wall, cowering behind Peter while he was creating a thin wall of something that appeared to be transparent yellow glass.. I'd never seen the room before, and all of a sudden a snake with gleaming yellow eyes begane slithering out of the mouth of the statue. Peter yelled for me to run, and the room and him disappeared from view again. I was standing in the hospital wing, looking down at Peter, Sirius, and Lily, each of whom had been turned into stone. Madam Pomfrey was talking to James about a cure, when James extracted his wand from his pocket and pointed it at Scorpion's chest, who was standing behind him. His voice came out dark when he accused Scorpion of aiding the monster. She was crying, repeating that she loved Sirius, and that she would never betray her friends, but James wasn't listening to her. He kept mumbling about how all the evidence was pointing at her. Remus had to stand in between them to keep James from hurting Scorpion. When James looked up, his eyes were a bright red. I woke up screaming, drenched in a cold sweat shortly afterward. I remember every detail of that strange dream, but I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.

-Severus

Scorpion's Very Kawaii Kitten Diary

I was sorted into Hufflepuff! Woooo! I asked Sirius whether or not Hufflepuff was a good house and he laughed so hard. He must've thought it was a silly question. Of course Hufflepuff is the best house! Duh, Scorpie! Anyway, so last week, I found a network of secret passageways that connect literally every room and hallway in Hogwarts together! I decided to call it "The Labyrinth". I think it's enchanted or something, because every time someone says my name if I'm in the Labyrinth, I hear it loud and clear, and I even know where they are. Today, I found something really weird in an abandoned, closed off classroom when I was exploring. It was a box with a diary in it. The box had the name Abraxas Malfoy painted on the inside of the lid. The diary was empty, so I pulled out a pen to write a little message to Abraxas telling him that I found his diary before I sent it off with my raven Aphrodite to give back to whoever he was, and you know what happened? The diary wrote back! I'll write down our conversation here:

Me: Hi, Abraxas. This is Scorpion Flametail. I'm sure it's been quite awhile since you've seen this diary, but I found it in a hallway, so I'm returning it to you.

DiaryBoyo: Hello… Scorpion did you say? I'm very pleased you found me, and I beg of you not to return me to Abraxas.

Me: Oh my Karai, you're a talking diary. I've never met a talking diary before. Why do you not want to go with Abraxas?

DiaryBoyo: He left me all alone in a cold place for years. I thought I was his best friend before I was locked in here, but he didn't even try to take care or me.

Me: Aw, you poor thing. What's your name?

DiaryBoyo: Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Me: Would you be okay with me keeping you Tom? I promise to keep you warm and safe and I'll write to you whenever I can.

DiaryBoyo: I'd like that very much Scorpion.

So now I have a friend that's a talking diary! Wooooooooo!

Until next time,

-Scorpion A Flametail


End file.
